THE World Boxing Council intends to assign the title of WBC Ambassador to former WBC featherweight champion Luisito Espinosa. However, WBC president Jose Sulaiman advised him to retire.
In a letter dated September 12 addressed to this writer as a response to inquiries, Sulaiman revealed his high respect to the 38-year-old former two-time world champion.
“I have the highest regard for the former WBC champion and Philippines sports hero Luisito Espinosa, for whom I wish the very best in the world for his future, and I would name him a WBC Ambassador as he represents an example for the youth of his country and the world,” Sulaiman said.
He furnished copies of his letter to the Games and Amusement Board, the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation based in Australia, the WBC board of governors and boxing writer Ronnie Nathanielsz.
The letter was also sent to several respected boxing personalities from around the world, including WBC International championship chair Mauro Betti of Italy.
“I would invite [Espinosa], however, to think profoundly on not continuing in boxing, as he would only be risking his health and his future and he would just risk the tarnishing of his name as one of the greatest champions that the Orient has had,” Sulaiman added.
“My position about him is absolutely not against him, but all to the contrary, it is based on the respect, friendship and admiration that I have for him and the concern and care that his people in the WBC have for him.”
Espinosa (47-13, 26 KOs), who turned 38 on June 26, was recently prevented by the California State Athletic Commission from making his 61st ring appearance against Lakva Sim (20-4-0, 17 KOs) of Mongolia, a former World Boxing Association super featherweight and lightweight champ.
Espinosa’s bout was blocked because he refused to undergo a series of MRI tests to detect any damage to his brain. The bout was booked as a lightweight encounter at Goossen-Tutor’s “Night of the Olympians” card at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, on August 18.
The fight was initially set for eight rounds, but was reduced to six after the CSAC learned that the former Filipino ring idol had lost four of his last six fights, all by knockout.
The losses include his last two bouts—a 7th-round KO to American Carlos Navarro in July 2004 and a 3rd-round defeat to Mexican Cristobal Cruz on February 18.
His other losses, both by knockout, were against Augie Sanchez in the 4th round and former US Olympian Zahir Raheem in the 8th.
Raheem defeated former three-time world champion Erik Morales on Saturday in the main event of the “Double-Trouble” card that also featured Manny Pacquiao—the current toast of RP boxing.
Espinosa did pick up a second-round stoppage of former WBA and International Boxing Federation world featherweight title challenger Ever Beleno of Colombia after his defeat to Sanchez, and a first-round annihilation of youthful Mexican Marco Angel Perez, after his loss to the undefeated Raheem.
A candidate as the third Filipino boxer to be inducted in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York—next to flyweight Francisco “Pancho Villa” Guilledo and super featherweight Gabriel “Flash” Elorde—Espinosa twice reached the summit of his sport after he made his pro debut as a light flyweight in May 1984.
He became the first Filipino to claim a world bantamweight title when he dethroned heavily favored defending champ Khaokor Galaxy in Bangkok, Thailand, with a first-round knockout in their WBA bantamweight title bout on October 18, 1989.
The 5-foot-7 Filipino defended the belt twice until he lost it through a 5th-round knockout loss to Venezuela’s Israel Contreras before a shocked hometown crowd of over 20,000 at the Araneta Coliseum—a day after the 3rd anniversary of his win to Galaxy—in 1991.
Espinosa then dethroned Mexico’s Manuel “Mantecas” Medina in a bout held in Tokyo, Japan, in December 1995, and held the WBC featherweight crown for 4 1-2 years.
He made seven title defenses, including when he sent his first challenger and one-time tormentor, Alejandro “Cobrita” Gonzales, out of the ring on a stretcher with a devastating knockout at 1:12 of the 4th round.
He lost the belt on a controversial decision in a rematch against another “Cobrita,” the Mexican Cesar Soto, in May 1999 in a bout held in El Paso, Texas.
Espinosa was screwed in his fifth title defense, a sixth-round knockout of Argentina’s Carlos Rios—who was then undefeated in 41 starts with 31 knockouts—when they fought in Koronadal, South Cotabato, in December 1997.
Fight host Gov. Hilario de Pedro of South Cotabato, Rod Nazario and others failed to pay in full his $150,000 (now P8.4 million) purse.
He brought the case to the Manila Regional Trial Court, first handled by the now-retired Judge Felesicimo Cabigao and inherited by Judge Rosario Cruz, under whose tenure it has been gathering dust for years.
Espinosa has no permanent job and place to live in California’s Bay Area, where his wife Marie Cherrie abandoned him along with their kids earlier this year. His wife, who works at Redwood City Computer, sent their three children to her parents in their ancestral home in the Singalong district of Manila.
