No doubt about it, newly crowned WBC Silver superflyweight champion Sylvester Lopez of Zamboanga Sibugay will battle the winner of the Nov. 14 fight in Bangkok between WBC titlist Suriya Sor Rungvisai of Thailand and Japanese challenger Nobuo Nashiro as decreed by no less than WBC president Jose Sulaiman.
Lopez, 24, earned the right by demolishing Oscar Ibarra of Mexico to wrest the WBC Silver crown in Queretaro recently. The fight pitted the No. 1 contender and WBC International ruler Lopez against the No. 2 contender and WBC Silver king Ibarra in the final eliminator to decide the next mandatory challenger. Suriya?s defense against Nashiro is optional.
Lopez? manager Gabriel (Bebot) Elorde said he is resigned to agreeing to a title fight in either Thailand or Japan depending on who wins in Bangkok. ?If Suriya wins, I don?t think we can get him to fight Sylver in Manila and it?s the same thing with Nashiro,? said Elorde. ?They can afford to match whatever we offer. But that?s okay. Sylver knows what to do anywhere he fights. Ibarra was being hailed in the WBC website as the next Mexican world champion but Sylver wasn?t intimidated. He knew he had to win by knockout in Mexico because of what happened to him in Guadalajara against (Juan Jose) Montes last year. Sylver will just have to knock out Suriya in Thailand or Nashiro in Japan.
?I couldn?t believe it,? said Elorde. ?They deducted $500 from Sylver?s purse to pay for the sanction fee, meaning the fight was for the Silver title. Then, after Sylver won, the WBC supervisor (Bob Yalen) told me it was a non-title fight and they would declare the title vacant. It was totally unfair.?
