A MOVE to form a Filipino Boxing Foundation, aimed at helping destitute former world champions, has snowballed in the US West Coast.
The move, spearheaded by San Francisco-based promoter Noel Rivera, was inspired by the plight of former world bantamweight and featherweight titlist Luisito Espinosa and his peers, who, after bringing honors to the country, have been neglected and left to live miserable lives.
Assisting Rivera, who until lately was Espinosa?s manager, is Mike Javier, a businessman-sportsman known to bring Filipino national artists and entertainers to the USA.
“It?s about time that a foundation of this kind be established to help our poor boxers who made the country proud in the international arenas but are left practically without means to raise their families,” Rivera, son of media man Hermie Rivera, the guy who discovered and nurtured Espinosa in his early boxing career, told this writer in a recent interview in San Francisco.
“Kawawa kasi ang mga boksingero natin, lalo na ?yung mga naging world champions, who should be considered sports greats but are forgotten. Most of them, like Louie (Espinosa), are living miserably for failure to save for their future,” he noted.
When finally established, the Filipino Boxing Foundation, according to Rivera, will conduct fundraising projects to finance its goals, one of which is to come up with a book on the Filipino boxing greats to be sold locally and in the U.S.
“Marami tayong magagawang proyekto para maka-raise ng pera at makatulong hindi lamang kay Luoie kundi pati na kina (Rolando) Navarette, (Rolando) Bohol and other former world champions na kasalukuyang naghihirap,” he stressed.
