GAB Acts on Vic Saludar's Double Whammy In Dominican Republic's WBA Title Defense
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 24 Dec 2021
The Games and Amusement Board (GAB) through Chairman Abraham Khalil Mitra has sent an official letter to the World Boxing Association (WBA) questioning and protesting why Filipino fighter Victorio Saludar was not paid the agreed upon purse following a recent controversial WBA minimumweight title loss in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
In their main event bout at the capital's Hotel Catalonia, unbeaten Dominican challenger Erick "Mini Pacman" Rosa Pacheco (5-0, 1 KO) was awarded a split decision victory over "Vicious" Vic Saludar (21-5, 11 KOs) after 12 rounds of boxing marked by controversial knockdowns.
According to ringside reports, Saludar pressed the action, but it was southpaw Rosa who dropped Saludar in round three with a cracking straight left. Saludar continued to stalk. Rosa was credited with another knockdown in round nine, but Saludar floored Rosa in round ten and upped the pressure late. In the end, scores were 116-109, 113-112 Rosa, 113-112 Saludar.
It was the second time Saludar was beaten in a title defense in Central America following his close defeat to Wilfredo Mendez in Puerto Rico for the WBO title last year.
But what made this latest loss galling was that the fight organizer only paid Saludar $13,000 after the contest which was way below the $35,000 agreed upon fight purse for Vic as the defending world champion.
Mitra identified the fight organizer/promoter as Belgeca Pena of the Shaun Boxing Promotion based in Santo Domingo with Gabriel Bebot Elorde, Jr as matchmaker and a certain Magister Octavio Rodriguez, obviously a Latin American like challenger Rosa Pacheco and not one from a neutral country, as WBA fight supervisor.
According to Mitra, they are still awaiting for official response from the WBA.
It was literally a triple whammy as far as the Saludar fighting siblings are concerned as just hours before Vic fought Pacheco in Sto Domingo, elder brother Froilan Saludar also lost his fight to one of the famous Moloney brothers in Australia.
Former world champion Andrew “The Monster” Moloney (22-2, 14 KOs), younger brother of bantamweight Jason, scored a ten round unanimous decision over rugged Froilan Saludar (32-5-1, 22 KOs) in a junior bantamweight bout on Tuesday night at The Star Event Centre in Sydney, Australia. After a close first round, Moloney took over and punished Saludar the rest of the way. Scores were 99-91, 98-92, 98-91.
Froilan was on a comeback trail following big fight losses including to one of another famous fighting siblings, McJoe Arroyo in 2014 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
It would appear that while Vic's misfortune is defending his title against Latinos in their own backyard, Froilan's is fighting famous boxing brothers in their homecourts.
GAB is considering not allowing Filipino fighters to fight under the WBA if the matter is not acted upon.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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