STORY OF PHILIPPINE BOXING PART XIX: JESUS SALUD, THE FILIPINO-HAWAIIAN WBA WORLD SUPER BANTAMWEIGHT CHAMPION
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 22 Apr 2020
Jesus Salud, born in May 3, 1963 in Sinait, Ilocos Sur, and resides in Honolulu, Hawaii. Thus he was called "The Hawaiian Punch." He won the WBA super bantamweight title by disqualification on December 11, 1989, in a bout against Juan Jose Estrada.
He had his professional debut on June 28, 1983 when he knocked out another Filipino - Hawaiian Cesar Zulueta at the Blaisdell Center Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii.
He won his first 20 pro fights before bowing out to Frankie Duarte for the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) bantamweight title by 9th round TKO at The Forum, Inglewood, California in July 10, 1986. Duarte was leading on all judges' scorecards before the stoppage in Salud's first career loss.
Salud then successfully snatched two successive unanimous decision wins over Edel Geronimo and Allan Makitoki in Honolulu before losing to Mexican Mario Gomez when the referee stopped the fight due to his collarbone injury for a 5th round TKO on September 3, 1987 at The Forum.
After that, he engaged in four non-title fights losing only once to Venezuela's Carlos Romero by split decision, winning over American Kirk Harris by 8th round KO, South Korean Yong Woon Park by unanimous decision, and Mexican Carlos Castro by 3rd round TKO.
He vied for the NABF super bantamweight title and stopped Ramiro Adames of Houston, Texas by 2nd round KO on February 28, 1989 in Los Angeles.
Salud defended his NABF title against Mexican-American Gilberto Contreras by a 2nd round KO on May 25, 1989 in Honolulu.
He won three more non-title bouts all by unanimous decision over Mexican Freddie Santos, American Eduardo Lopez, and Mexican Hector Diaz.
On December 11, 1989, Salud became a world champion when he won by 9th round disqualification over WBA super bantamweight titlist Juan Jose Estrada of Mexico at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
He was stripped of his title after failing to travel to Colombia for a mandatory title defense.
On June 7, 1990, Salud won the minor International Boxing Council (IBC) super bantamweight title by Martin Ortigon of San Antonio, Texas by 11th round TKO.
He won the NABF super bantamweight title by beating Darryl Pinckney of Miami, Florida by unanimous decision on September 14, 1991.
Salud failed to annex the International Boxing Federation (IBF) super bantamweight championship when he was defeated by Welcome Ncita of South Africa by unanimous decision on April 14, 1992.
He defended his NABF title twice by 8th round TKO of Rudy Zavala of California and by 1st round TKO of Miguel Molina of Mexico.
He failed in another attempt at the IBF super bantamweight title, this time being beaten by Kennedy McKinney of Mississippi by unanimous decision on October 16, 1993.
Salud again defended his NABF title by a unanimous decision over Max Gomez of Denver, Colorado. He also stopped Mexican Juan Valencia by 10th round TKO.
He lost in his attempts for another world title against Antonio Cermeno of Venezuela for the WBA super bantamweight title, then defeated by Vuyani Bungu of South Africa for the IBF super bantamweight title and lost to Kevin Kelly of New York for the minor World Boxing Federation featherweight title all by unanimous decision.
But his non-title bout wins were abbreviated, against Mexico's Jose Luis Meza by 3rd round, KO, Mexico's Jose Luis Montes by 8th round TKO, Bulgaria's Michael Gallatti by 4th round TKO, and Mexico's Manuel Arellano by 2nd round TKO.
Salud won the WBO Asia Pacific super bantamweight championship over Indonesia's Kris Wuritimur by 5th round KO on February 24, 1998.
He went on to win five more fights, three by stoppages, before he faced Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera and was stopped in the 6th round losing in his bid for the WBO super bantamweight title on December 1, 2000. Three years thereafter, the Mexican champion was beaten by Manny Pacquiao.
He fought four more fights, losing three of them, marking the time to call it quits. He has collected 76 total fights with 63 wins, 38 KO victories, 13 losses, with 4 KO defeats. He has 37 of his bouts fought in Hawaii and another 24 in California.
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