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Philippines, 17 May 2024 |
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LET'S SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Thu, 14 Jan 2010  Villareal. Our good friend and boxing fan Carlo Suarez who is general manager of the wonderful and classy Cebu Grand Hotel where we always stay during visits to Cebu drew our attention this morning to a reported response of Team Villareal to our article comparing his tactics to that of Floyd Mayweather Jr and claiming that we made false statements. Let’s set the record straight. Right after the rules meeting on Wednesday we were informed by Games and Amusements Board boxing division chief Dr. Nasser Cruz that Team Villareal had threatened not to fight unless they get so-called “neutral judges.” That is a redundant statement and anamolous because judges are supposed to be neutral so there is no such animal as a neutral judge. Maybe a third country judge, that's all. Dennis Canete, vice president of ALA Promotions told us that the question of the judges for the fight had been cleared and approved by the World Boxing Council of which GAB Chairman Eric Buhain is a vice president. What the Villareal camp was promised by some WBC official in California is immaterial. The fact is they didn’t want the Filipino judges – some of the best in the country I might add – and even said that if they knew this was the situation they wouldn’t have taken the fight. Let us refresh their memories by going back to a recent interview on an international boxing internet site in which they said in part “The Philippine people know boxing so I am sure that they will appreciate my skills. I just hope the judges do as well, I know it will be tough for me to get a fair decision no matter what I do, but I have to fight, I have to beat this guy bad. I really have to try and not let this guy make it to the end. If I beat him enough that I feel I won and they take the fight away from me, we will protest it. But again the Philippine people are good people and I hope that they (judges) are fair. I honestly believe though that my style will give him trouble and our game plan will give me many opportunities to hurt this guy. I guarantee you that he has never faced anyone like me, I will make him miss but will always be right in front of him countering, every time he misses he will pay. I just don't see him having anything to beat me with!” (SHADES OF MAYWEATHER TO US). Perhaps Mr. Franco should listen to himself and Mr. Villareal when they appeared at the pre-fight press conference and the fact that all four fighters spoke about winning by knockout. It was carried in the Cebu newspapers for one. Once again, here is an excerpt of an interview given by Anthony Villareal in the recent past when he was asked what he had seen or heard about Milan Melindo. His response “Not much, I have seen some video footage of him, but I had never heard of him before this fight. From what I have seen he is a technical boxer with a little speed. I think I have too much movement and speed for him, plus I know I can hurt him, I have put every opponent I have faced down even the ones that slipped. But to be honest I really don't care; I just want to fight! I WILL FIGHT ANYONE, ANYTIME AND IN ANYPLACE!” Fighting words. As a media person and a fight fan who has covered the sport for the past 50 years which is probably twice as long as Villareal has been on the face of the earth, we admire his confidence and his willingness to fight anyone, anytime in any place which clearly implies that he doesn’t care who the judges are because, taken together with his statements that he had put every opponent he has faced, down and the fact that he knows he can hurt Melindo , he should have no problems. For the record Milan Melindo is ranked No.1 by the WBO, No. 3 by the IBF and WBA and No. 5 by the WBC but regrettably Villareal had “never heard of him.” There is no effort whatsoever on our part to turn the fans in Cebu against Villareal because that is not in our nature. What we do encourage, admittedly, is for fans to turn against bum decisions or against mismatches where good Filipino fighters are matched against patsies, which is what we did in the recent fight of Michael Farenas even though the promoter – Gerry Penalosa – is a very good friend of ours. Bottom line is we wish to maintain if not reinforce the integrity of the sport and more importantly protect the public interest. When 25,000 fight fans saw the classy Z “The Dream” Gorres robbed of the WBO world super flyweight title in February 2007 here in Cebu where he lost by a split decision although the American judge Denny Nelson had Gorres the winner by a wide margin, the fans did not turn on Montiel or the judges because they were foreigners and we know how to treat our visitors, sometimes to a fault. Bottom line is, the GAB even had to allow the Villareal camp to sit down and talk to the judges Wednesday evening for them to appreciate the neutrality of Filipino judges and to finally accept the reality of the situation. Frankly, we don’t believe there was any need for the judges to make a case for their impartiality in the first place. Remember, when Filipino boxers fight in the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico and other parts of the world, we never question the judges assigned because our boxers defer to the jurisdiction of the state or country commissions. But that's the way we are as a people. We go out of our way to make visitors feel at home and confident but that, whether Mr. Franco likes it or not, is submerged by our responsibility as journalists to tell it like it is. We ourselves when hosting the press conference made it very clear to Team Villareal and Team Santos that they will surely get a fair decision because the Philippines is perhaps the best example of a country where fans abhor bum decisions and where our judges are not just impartial, they are good and honest. We cited the case of Gorres who suffered the reverse of a “hometown decision”. There is also the case of judge Jonathan Davies in the Gorres-Vic Darchinyan IBF title eliminator when he scored the fight for Darchinyan by two points which enabled him to salvage a draw and earn a title fight because he was ranked one notch higher than Gorres in the IBF ratings at that time. We even welcomed Villareal and said it was good to see a talented American fighter see action in the Philippines and referred to his impressive credentials. Come on Mr. Franco, relax and let Anthony fight as we know he can and let’s all hope we have a great fight because the fans deserve nothing less. We assure you that our judges are fair and honest, you have a truly top class international referee in Bruce McTavish and our fans will treat Team Villareal as they always do – with respect and since he is an American, even with affection anchored on our longstanding history of friendly relations. See you at the fights. God bless. Ronnie Nathanielsz Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.  |
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