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Philippines, 24 Mar 2026 |
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GAB Calls for "Constructive Dialogue" with WBA By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Fri, 28 Jan 2022  Mitra. The Philippines Games and Amusement Board (GAB) has called for immediate holding of a "Constructive Dialogue" with the World Boxing Association (WBA) purposely to tackle and hopefully resolve issues and concerns dating back to some years ago which have remained unacted upon to the detriment of Philippine boxing and certain Filipino boxers. In a letter to WBA President Gilberto Mendoza, GAB Chairman Abraham Khalil Mitra enjoined for the holding of such Dialogue to include also the WBA Asia regional leadership to address matters dating back to 2019 following the controversial result of the WBA world minimumweight title fight held in Thailand between Thai defending champion Thamanon Niyomtrong and Filipino challenger ArAr Andales. In that fight, Andales was able to cut Niyomtrong also known as Knockout CP Freshmart in the eye lid with what his camp and other knowledgeable ring experts as legitimate punches. But the referee of that fight ruled that the injury was caused by accidental clash of head which was not possible because the Thai suffered cut in the eyelid making him unfit to continue. Hence, the referee stopped the bout and went for the judges scorecards resulting to Thamanon retaining his title by technical decision. Had tha referee not arbitrary ruled that the cut was caused by a head clash, Andales should have won by technical knockout. The Andales camp protested the result of the fight through the WBA regional office but they were constrained by the requirement of protest filing fee which was way over his purse for the said fight. Hence the matter remained unresolved to this day though the WBA appeared to have accepted the technical decision result by not only continuing to recognize the Thai as regular world champion but even elevating him to super champion status in 2020. The GAB also put the WBA to task for arbitrarily stripping fighting Senator Manny Pacquiao of his WBA world welterweight super championship last year and relegating him to the ambiguous status as champion in recess for his alleged failure to defend his title albeit the raging COVID-19 pandemic. In his stead, the WBA promoted regular world titlist Yordenis Ugas of Cuba who has not faced or beaten any elite opponent before. In a tragic comic twist, Pacquiao ended up fighting Ugas for the super belt following the cancellation of his challenge for the unified WBA-IBF titles of American Spence who pulled out due to late discovered eye injury. Unprepared for a new opponent, Pacquiao lost to Ugas and shortly after announced his official retirement from pro boxing. The two other issues brought up by the GAB centered on the questionable conduct and controversial result of Vic Saludar's defense of his WBA regular world minimumweight title against Erick Rosa Pacheco of the Dominican Republic in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo last December 4. The GAB questioned the appointment of all Latino panel of judges that included a Dominican, referee and WBA fight supervisor in a world title bout which should have been scored by neutral ring officials in deference to the defending champion Saludar, an Asian. The GAB adopted the complaints filed by Saludar and his promoter regarding the questionable scoring and the referee calling a non existent knockdown in the 9th round in favor of Pacheco that resulted to Saludar losing on two of the three judges scorecards. Finally, the GAB called attention to the delayed payment of Saludar's full fight purse by the Dominican promoter which added insult to the defeat resulting to financial loss to the Filipino camp for expenses on return trip to the Philippines. Chairman Mitra enjoined the WBA to give due course to this call for constructive dialogue citing the fact that the Philippines has been a member of good standing of the WBA from the days when the Panama based organization was still the sole major recognized world boxing sanctioning body. The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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