Wednesday, August 27, 2008 Baat wins interim fight, but promoter grabs belt
ALL was going well for Jonathan Baat (7-3-1, 3 KO’s), he scored a brutal right uppercut to the body that knocked out undefeated Indonesian Richard Samosir (17-1-3, 7 KO’s) in the sixth round and clinched the interim World Boxing Organization Oriental bantamweight crown last Aug. 23 at the Trans 7 Studio in Indonesia,
It was all going well until Indonesian promoter and manager Temuzin Rambing snagged the title away from them after the fight.
The RWS stable trainer Juanito Ablaca, who headed the team of Baat, was very ecstatic after he witnessed his pugilist KO the Indonesian in his own turf, but after returning to the hotel after the fight at around 3 a.m. Ablaca was shocked that Rambing of TR Promotions barged in and grabbed the belt that rightfully belonged to Baat.
“Rambing went inside our room and was furious. He took away the belt from us. He told us that he is taking away the belt because they still have a rematch with Baat on November,” said Ablaca in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
Ablaca feels that what Rambing did was unacceptable.
“He has no manners. I haven’t heard of that rule in boxing. Why did they take away the belt it should belong to us, we won the fight,” told the enraged Ablaca.
In his 34 years in boxing and 22 years as trainer, Ablaca has never encountered this bizarre event, not until now.
“In my 22 years as a trainer. This is the first time that I’ve ever experienced this. I was shocked. This is the first time in history,” said Ablaca.
This Thursday, Ablaca will bring up this the incident to WBO Asia-Pacific chairman Leon Panoncillo, who will be arriving for the “WBO Night of Champions” fight card. (EKA)
