Casimero can’t quit his Monster hunt

There were concerned speculations on the exact whereabouts of WBO bantamweight champion Johnriel Casimero, previously reported packing up for a trip home to Ormoc City from Las Vegas.

Casimero had obviously lost his patience following an over-extended wait for a return signal.

Welcome preparations had, in fact, been started by city authorities, led by Mayor Richard Gomez.

An earlier report said Casimero trainer Nonoy Neri had flown home ahead.

Casimero had already moved from Florida to a training facility in Las Vegas last March when his scheduled April 25 triple crown unification showdown with unbeaten Japanese sensation Naoya Inoue was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum continued to push for the Casimero-Inoue bout, lining it up as top attraction in boxing’s anticipated return.

Arum said Inoue’s handlers had assured they would bring the WBA and IBF bantamweight champion over to the United States, once pandemic restrictions were eased.

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Unfortunately, Arum next appeared to have forgotten about Casimero and Inoue while intensely attending to his experimental live fights without an audience cards around the MGM Grand Las Vegas.

Casimero, caught in desperate wait, started to act up, thus the reports about his homecoming.

So where’s the big-punching Filipino road warrior?

“The 31-year-old stud is continuing with his training at the Bones Adams Gym in Las Vegas,” reported the keen and reliable international sports correspondent Homer Sayson.

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That’s as factual as it could get. Sayson happens to be an adoring chum of MP (Manny Pacquiao) Promotions president Sean Gibbons, who’s wholly responsible for Casimero in the United States.

Sayson said Gibbons has assured the Inoue-Casimero fight is very much alive.

“It’s still very much in play, the team is still very optimistic,” Gibbons said.

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It’s like this. In a departure press conference in Makati last February, Casimero was made to poke a mean fist on a life-size cardboard cutout of Inoue.

That make-believe confrontation did fire up Casimero, who declared he would chase The Monster Inoue, with an awesome record of 19 wins, 16 by knockout, to the end.

Hoping against hope, Casimero has now been left to wait and wish he won’t end up fighting a make-believe monster.