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Philippines, 27 Sep 2025 |
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Staging Jerusalem-Collazo Outside of the USA By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Sat, 27 Sep 2025  After a successful-albeit quite controversial-defense of his Ring and unified WBA-WBO titles recently against Filipino challenger Jayson Vayson, Puerto Rican star Oscar "El Pupillo" Collazo has casted his eyes on a unification fight against WBC minimumweight titlist Melvin Jerusalem. Given the magnitude of that fight, it is very possible that the partnership of Miguel Cotto and Oscar dela Hoya through his Golden Boy Promotions will again collaborate to have the bout held in the USA. But given the controversy that attended the Collazo-Vayson fight which has continued to rage in the internet despite efforts to explain and justify what happened, it would be wise to explore other venues outside of the US mainland. The Collazo camp will surely recommend Puerto Rico as a possible venue and back this up with an irresistible fight purse offer. But for the Jerusalem camp, that would be like a "from the frying pan into the fire" situation for Melvin. Therefore, Puerto Rico is also out of the question. The Jerusalem camp through MP Promotion, can also counter with the Philippines particularly Manila as a possible venue. But they would need to at least match the Collazo side's best offer and agree to other conditions. That's the problem. Per conservative estimates, a fight of this magnitude would require at least a quarter of a million dollars ($250,000) to stage in the Philippines to cover fight purses, airfares, hotel accommodation and other organisational as well as logistical expenses. In peso term that is a kingly sum, more than ten million pesos. Manny Pacquiao who owns MP Promotion is the richest boxer in the Philippines and perhaps among the richest athletes in Asia. But he is not running a charity. His MP Promotion, apart from helping develop and showcase Filipino boxing talent, is primarily a business enterprise that also needs to earn to keep operating. Pacquiao has revived a weekly television boxing show, "Blow by Blow" as a way of paying back to the show that promoted his boxing career and as his contribution to the Philippine boxing industry. It was an open secret that he is virtually subsidizing the show which had even featured a Jerusalem WBC title defense last year. Pacquiao is in the lead of organising the 50th anniversary commemoration of the 1975 Thrilla in Manila which features among others Pedro Taduran's IBF minimumweight title defense on "Blow by Blow" and other bouts involving Filipinos versus foreigners and among foreign fighters. Manny would be carrying most of the financial load. Therefore, expecting Pacquiao to foot much of the bill it would entail to stage the Jerusalem-Collazo triple world title unification fight in Manila would be asking too much. One option is through solicitation of funding help through sponsorship by big private companies especially those with corporate linkage to sports development. Another option is exploring co-promotion deal with cash-rich Japanese promotions. This is highly possible now with a Japanese, Ryuse Matsumoto, holding the WBA regular minimumweight championship. A deal could be reached that the Japanese promoters will have the option for the next fight of the Jerusalem-Collazo winner in Japan. The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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