IT WAS not only former world light flyweight champion Johnriel Casimero who was fooled and fouled all night long in Bangkok on Saturday. There was a bigger victim in the scandalous IBF flyweight championship: Philippine boxing itself.
Casimero, the mandatory challenger, was grabbed, choked, mauled, savaged and repeatedly dumped to the floor by a malignant Thai champ who performed with criminal intent for a total of 12 rounds.
There were two main culprits, namely the defending Thai IBF flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng and the American referee Larry Doggett.
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The bout, wildly applauded by blood-thirsty Thai fans, drew an international outrage.
The supervising International Boxing Federation would’ve nothing to do with it.
Bothersome as the event was, Phil D. Jay of World Boxing News tried to solicit a comment from the world boxing body responsible for the championship.
Replied the IBF: “We were not aware of any problems concerning referee Larry Doggett.”
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There was a problem, indeed.
Rued writer Larry Greisman of “Fighting Words” fame: “It was pitiful and there are those who need to be held responsible for righting the wrongs. Fighters have been allowed to get away with holding and fouling before but Ruenroeng was perhaps the most blatantly, egregiously and frequently dirty. There is no excuse for a fighter to attempt such behavior and there is no excuse for a referee to allow such behavior for an extended period of time.”
Here at home, the bout, shown on Sunday afternoon over TV 5, at first drew scant attention. It, however, became a hot topic after it turned out that Aljoe Jaro, a Filipino, worked as manager for the anomalous Thai champ during the championship.
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In his turn to explain, Jaro did not hesitate to declare, “Ruenroeng was simply smart, and not dirty.”
Grossly wrong and unpatriotic as his claim was, Jaro managed to make it sound as though it was spoken from the pulpit.
It was foul, all for the simple fact that, as an exported expert, Jaro should’ve behaved decently or made an effort to uphold the values and dignity of the Filipino abroad.
It was bad enough that he had connived in perpetrating an abomination (inside the ring). Jaro should’ve stopped there.
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Anyway, just like the IBF, it would seem that the supervising Games and Amusements Board would’ve nothing to do with the blasphemy slammed (again) on Philippine boxing in Bangkok on Saturday.
He could no longer stand the repeated savaging of Filipino boxers in Thailand, so boxing manager and international promoter Dante Almario wrote a letter seeking help from the GAB.
Almario proposed that the fate of Filipino fighters who regularly get cheated/savaged in Thailand should be brought up in future conventions of international boxing bodies like the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO.
Good shot. However, it’s hard to determine if the busy, well-travelled GAB chief would find time to read Almario’s urgent message.