Saturday, February 03, 2007 Montiel threatens to skip fight v. Z
MEXICAN champion Fernando “Chucolito” Montiel has threatened to back out from his Feb. 24 fight against mandatory challenger Z “The Dream” Gorres here.
Montiel, whose relation with new manager Garry Gittelshon is starting to get sour, insisted on a March 4 date and not on Feb. 24, the original schedule.
The Montiel-Gorres fight was moved to March 4 from Feb. 24 so it could be included in the World Cup Boxing but was later moved back to its original schedule.
But with the Word Cup being postponed to late July, promoter Sammy Gello-ani had to follow the 90-day regulation period of holding the promotion the World Boxing Organization ordered after the Cebuano boxing promoter won the purse bidding held last Nov. 27, 2006 in Puerto Rico.
Montiel insisted he would not fight Gorres on Feb. 24 since he already signed the March 4 schedule.
After learning of Montiel’s dilemma, promoter Sammy Gello-ani and American matchmaker Sampson Lewkowicz sought the intervention of WBO president Francisco Valcarcel.
Valcarcel then sent communication to Montiel, asking him to state his reasons for not signing the Feb. 24 fight with Gorres.
The Puerto Rican boxing president reminded Montiel that he is obliged to defend his title or be stripped of it.
Valcarcel also noted that the 90-day period will expire on Feb. 25 and that he just allowed the March 4 date because the fight was included in the World Cup.
And since the World Cup has been postponed, the original schedule has to be followed. Gello-ani, however, is not worried with Montiel’s arguments.
“I have no worries. If Montiel won’t come, then he is going to be stripped of the title and Gorres will have to fight against the No.2 challenger, which is Posuwan Pramuansak of Thailand. I have anticipated this situation and if Montiel would not sign the contract within 48 hours as mandated by WBO, Pramuansak is ready to fight Gorres. It will actually give me some help since the cost of the promotion would be lesser,” Gello-ani told Sun.Star-Cebu.
Gello-ani suspected that this dilly-dally tactics of Montiel is a way of telling them that he is not going to fight the Cebuano ring warrior.
Golden Boy Promotions had originally offered Montiel to fight Gorres last October, but the Mexican did not accept the fight since he was not satisfied with the purse prize.
This prompted Team Gorres to seek for a purse bidding, which Gello-ani won at $126,500.
Gello-ani also said Montiel would get $101,200 instead of $88,550, while Gorres will get only $25,300 in the coming fight. (RCM)
