GAB MUST LOOK INTO REFEREE VIRGILIO GARCIA'S PERFORMANCE IN TACONING-FAJARDO TITLE FIGHT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 16 Sep 2015
Under its mandate to supervise and control the sport of professional boxing, the Games and Amusements headed by chairman Ramon "Monju" Guanzon has an obligation to ensure that ring officials perform their functions with competence and integrity which we like to define as "the quality of wholeness."
That was certainly non existent in the Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation light flyweight title fight between champion Jonathan "Lightning" Taconing who is a protege of Johnny Elorde, son of the late, great Hall of Famer Gabriel "Flsh" Elorde and the rugged Jomar Fajardo, a bell-to-bell brawler who is best known for giving Francisco Rodriguez, the talented Mexican mandatory challenger to WBO champion Donnie "Ahas" Nietes, a hard time in back-to-back ten round bouts, salvaging a a split draw in the first and dropping a unanimous decision in the rematch.
Referee Garcia, for reasons known only to him, inexplicably failed to call several patently illegal low blows which the TV director of Viva Sports "Main Event" which covered the fight for telecast at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday with a replay at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, counted no less than ten (10).
We anchored the telecast with well-known boxing man Mike Ochosa and we both noticed Garcia's abysmal failure or reluctance to call low blows even as the fans kept shouting at him.
The only time he decided to warn Fajardo was after we ourselves approached the GAB officials at ringside and complained to Tony Comia of the boxing division who promised "to remind him (Garcia)" about watching out for the low blows which were compounded by two head-butts which opened up cuts over both eyes of Taconing and later promoted a two-point deduction by Garcia.
But even after the deduction, Garcia continued to turn a blind eye to a series of low blows in the later rounds making Elorde himself and many others, including ourselves wonder what special connection Garcia possibly had with the manager of Fajardo, Aljoe Jaro.
We are well aware that Aljoe Jaro is a trainer who demands the best from his boxers including being in top physical condition and someone who puts a premium of body shots which can wear an opponent down especially if his fighter - Fajardo - was relentless in his aggression.
What bothered us about the non-action of referee Garcia is that Taconing is ranked No. 1 in the world by the leading boxing organization, the World Boxing Council under its president Mauricio Sulaiman and a bad injury or even a loss would have conceivably ruined his chances at a world title shot.
Such poor officiating must be reviewed and penalized should referee Garcia not have a satisfactory explanation.
We recall that when Taconing was robbed of a world title victory against then champion Pornsawan Porpramook and Johnny Elorde complained and we ourselves called then WBC president Don Jose Sulaiman, who reviewed the fight tape and suspended the Korean referee for one year.
We are not suggesting that Chairman Guanzon does the same because its up to him and the GAB but we would certainly demand that he review the fight tape perhaps in the presence of referee Garcia and take whatever action he deems appropriate.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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