Fritz Gaston, in his third month as head of the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) boxing division, has clarified that they’ve been doing their best to institute reforms and, at the same time, make Philippine boxing both a safe and noble territory.
For the record, Gaston’s office has been taken to task for the alarming mismatches that were staged in Cebu last March, wherein two Indonesian fighters, with a dozen of defeats between themselves, were pitted against two unbeaten fast-rising Filipino boxers.
The shameless mismatches, that saw the two Indonesians getting stopped cold one after the other inside one minute of the first round, drew severe criticism from fans and experts who branded the foul bouts garbage.
Gaston said it was unfair to blame the GAB for the dangerous and sickening mismatches.
He explains:
“The ratings show us that in the Jr. Featherweight, Jack Tepora is number 1 and Yon Armed is number 14. In the Jr. Flyweight Cristian Araneta is number 5 and Demsi Manufoe is number 8. (We can’t download the Oriental ratings). From these info we know that all four fighters are rated in the top 15, meaning these boxers know how to box, which is surprising (and unfortunate for the promoter) that both Indons fell in the 1st rounds which in hindsight was easy to comment that they were mismatches. The question that must be in our minds is how WBO rates the boxers and how it gave sanction to these championship fights. Because to GAB the primordial concern is the safety of the boxer.
As long as a boxer has a license, with medical clearance and approval from his local boxing organization then he’ll be allowed to fight. To me, it’s not fair to say GAB should not allow fights that seem lopsided against the Filipino fighter and when the fight is lopsided in favor of the Filipino we should not have allowed. No win situation for the promoters and managers. As one great boxer friend said ‘the only time a fight is a mismatch is when one fighter only has one arm… Thank you very much.”