JOHNRIEL Casimero lost his WBO bantamweight title outside of the ring, sources bared on Friday.
The 31-year-old Filipino was stripped of his title after being forced to back out of his mandatory defense against England’s Paul Butler on Saturday by viral gastritis.
Casimero’s own cutman Stephen Lunas hinted about the condition of the Filpino fighter in a post on Facebook, saying, ‘viral gastritis sucks.’
‘Get well soon, champ’ “But first and foremost, the health of an athlete is more important than the sport itself,” he added. “Get well soon, champ.”
The last-minute development came amid rumors Casimero is still above the 118-lbs limit and couldn’t make the weight in time for Friday’s official weigh-in.
Probellum, which is promoting the fight card in Dubai for its first major event, has yet to come out with the official statement on the issue.
Curiously, official results of the weigh-in for the fight card that also includes Filipinos Donnie Nietes seeing action in the undercard, and Jayson Mama fighting IBF super-flyweight champion Sunny Edwards in the co-main event, have yet been announced as of post time.
