IN RECENT years, Filipino boxing promoters and managers, particularly boxing patron Tony Aldeguer of the world famous ALA Gym, have helped elevate the World Boxing Organization into the top four organizations in the world, behind the World Boxing Council, World Boxing Association and the International Boxing Federation.
To a large extent, it has been anchored on the close working relationship Aldeguer and promoter Sammy Gello-ani have developed in recent years with WBO Asia-Pacific main man Leon Panoncillo, who has himself done a commendable job in pushing the WBO into the forefront of boxing in the Asia-Pacific region.
The tie-up between the ALA Gym and Golden Boy Promotions of the great Oscar de la Hoya, which was finalized last March, strengthened the bond between the WBO and the ALA Gym which has, in its roster, the finest and most promising fighters in the Philippines outside a handful of others, with Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao standing all alone on a pedestal of his own.
In fact, many of the fighters under Golden Boy are either champions or contenders in the top rungs of the WBO. They include super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce de Leon and of course, Fernando Montiel, the super flyweight champion, with emerging ring sensation Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista, the no. 1 contender to Ponce de Leon?s crown, and Z ?The Dream? Gorres, the mandatory challenger to Montiel until last Saturday?s travesty.
The WBO was actually formed when a group of Puerto Rican and Dominican Republic boxing people broke away from the World Boxing Association?s annual convention in 1988, apparently disgusted by what they claimed were the questionable rules and ratings system of the WBA.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, says that ?many experts, however, accuse the group of having even less integrity than their former associates.?
Ramon Pina Acevedo of the Dominican Republic was elected as the first WBO president. He was succeeded by former world light heavyweight champion Puerto Rico?s Jose Torres, who provided both stature and respectability to the organization before he gave way to another Puerto Rican, lawyer and current president Francisco ?Paco? Varcarcel, a gregarious, outgoing and charismatic individual.
The WBO has had its fair share of blunders, none more embarrassing than when it twice moved Darrin Morris, who was dead, up in its super middleweight rankings in 2001. In fact, Morris was no. 7 at the time of his death and had been moved up to no. 5 when the error was discovered by the WBO. At that time, Valcarcel admitted the mistake was ?regrettable.?
What was worse is that Morris moved up in the ratings despite the fact that he had fought only once in three years and the fighter he beat had only 15 wins in 78 fights. The free encyclopedia states that the WBO has ?never been able to build a brand name equal to the IBF, WBA and WBC,? although it concedes that its fights are popular in some parts of the world.
Clearly, the Philippines is a key player in the plans of the WBO to make its mark in the Asia-Pacific region. The presence of Valcarcel and some of the top officials of the WBO, including vice president Richard Dicuir, chairman of the Championship Committee Luis Perez and lawyer John Dogan, who is chairman of the Grievance Committee, reinforced this belief.
?It?s great that they are here. It?s great that they are supporting boxing here. It shows their commitment to the Philippines. It?s an honor not only for us at Golden Boy working with Mr. Tony Aldeguer and Sammy Gello-ani but it also demonstrates the magnitude of the event [Moment of Truth],? Golden Boy Promotions vice president Eric Gomez noted.
Valcarcel himself told us he was very proud to be in the Philippines especially because his daughter-in-law was from Manila and he had ?a granddaughter who is 50 percent Filipina.? He said he had promised Gello-ani and also the family of Montiel that he was going to be here.
?We have to open doors here in Asia and the Philippines is very influential in what happens in the region.?
The WBO president flew in from Beijing and revealed that his group will press on in China, Korea and Thailand, but that the Philippines ?is the main headquarters of the WBO as an organization.?
Valcarcel praised Pacquiao, who was credited with virtually opening the world to Filipino fighters.
?Pacquiao is my favorite fighter aside from Wilfredo Gomez [the former world super bantamweight champion from Puerto Rico],? said Valcarcel, who was Gomez?s lawyer until some three years ago. ?Everybody is talking about Manny Pacquiao all around the world. He is my no. 1 fighter. The best, all around the world, the no. 1 pound-for-pound.?
Talking about the Moment of Truth and the WBO super flyweight title fight between Montiel and Gorres, Valcarcel said: ?Because of Pacquiao, people are looking at what happens in the Philippines.?
He praised Panoncillo for ?doing a helluva job,? and credited him for ?opening doors for the WBO all around Asia. We have to support boxing in Asia and the WBO will be very strong in Asia in the next three or four years. We conquered Europe, now we are going to conquer Asia for sure.?
Truth to tell, if Valcarcel and the WBO aim to conquer Asia, especially the Philippines, where fight fans love the sport of boxing, understand its nuances and can sense when things are not right, then such dubious decisions as the one, where Gorres lost a won fight at the hands of the referee and two of the three judges certainly won?t help.
If we are to analyze the circumstances leading to the title fight, we could make certain fairly logical conclusions. Valcarcel?s statement that he promised the Montiel family that he would be here, should be taken in the context of the fighter?s initial statements that he didn?t want to come to the Philippines, fearing he would be victim of a hometown decision. In effect, Valcarcel was here to provide some form of assurance or protection if you will. Remember also, that Montiel had shown no particular desire to defend his title against Gorres even in the United States, which is what forced the WBO, at the insistence of Aldeguer, to go into a purse bid, which Gello-ani won.
It is conceivable that the WBO, in order to assure Montiel who was described as a great champion a fair decision, handpicked officials with whom he was comfortable. The fact that the fight was held in the Philippines and no Asians were considered either as referee or judges contrasts dramatically with Valcarcel?s announced desire to establish a strong WBO presence in the region. In fact, to some, including ourselves, it was an example of poor judgment if not an insult. This was compounded by the fact that two of the key officials, referee Samuel Viruet and judge Raul Caiz Jr. were Hispanics. Viruet was a Puerto Rican from New York while Caiz was a Mexican, who lived in Los Angeles.
Caiz was the same judge, who scored the Nov. 10, 2001 IBF junior featherweight title fight between Pacquiao and the late Agapito Sanchez, which had to be stopped in the sixth round because of a nasty gash over Pacquiao?s eye, caused by a series of head-butts, for Sanchez. A notoriously dirty fighter from the Dominican Republic (a founding member of the WBO, we might add), Sanchez elbowed, laced and even took down Pacquiao with a wrestling hold, forcing referee Marty Denkin to deduct two points from Sanchez, although most ringsiders felt Sanchez should have been disqualified for repeated low blows and other dirty tactics.
Caiz?s scorecard told it all. He had actually given five of the six rounds to Sanchez, which contrasted dramatically with the scorecard of Ric Bays, who had Pacquiao the winner, 58-54. The third judge, Marshall Walker, scored the fight even at 56-56. HBO scored the fight for Pacquiao, 58-54, explaining that while Sanchez won the first two rounds, Pacquiao took the next four.
Chuck Giampa was the same referee, who gave middleweight champion Jermain Taylor a 115-113 scorecard that helped him beat Winky Wright, even as respected boxing writer Ron Borges and many others at ringside had Wright the winner not only because of his ?dominating jab and the fact that at the end of the night, Taylor?s left eye was nearly closed.?
Even Lennox Lewis, the former world heavyweight champion, who did the fight for HBO, thought Wright won fairly handily. This is almost exactly what Gorres did to Montiel, outbox him for nine of the 12 rounds, but he, too, regrettably suffered the same injustice.
In an article in The CyberBoxingZone Journal as early as October 2000, boxing writer Lucius Shepard asked the question: ?Who is Chuck Giampa? Who is Jerry Roth??
He then went on to say that boxing fans would do well ?to cross their fingers and their toes whenever these two gents are scheduled to judge a fight because it seems they have been involved with every lame Vegas decision.?
While admitting that bad decisions are part of boxing, Shepard said the fact that Giampa and Roth have been ?associated with so many of them suggests a suspicious blind spot on the part of the Nevada Commission or the intervention of a supernatural agency other than God.?
?Scoring a fight is not rocket science. A 10-year-old can do that. There are, for sure, going to be subjective differences, but these two men have been so consistently at odds with the consensus for years, either they have degenerated to a point where the perceptual acuity of a 10-year-old is beyond them, or else they have become such masters of their craft that they see punches no one else can see and they sense subtle varieties of ring mastery that we cannot,? said Shepard in a blistering attack. (To be continued)
