PINOY PUG NOW CONSIDERS CANADA HIS ?PERMANENT? HOME
By Alex P. Vidal
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 06 Aug 2008
VANCOUVER, Canada ? Twelve years after his last fight at the Convention Center in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Jonavin Valero (not his real name), a former TNT (tago ng tago) is now a Canadian citizen and considers Canada his ?permanent? residence.
?Dili nako mubalik sa Pilipinas. May pamilya nako dinhi. Maayo na pangabuhi ko dinhi (I will no longer go back to the Philippines. I have raised a family here and my life is now better),? said the 41-year-old Valero, who agreed to be interviewed on condition that his identity will be kept.
Valero first fought as 8-rounder in Toronto, Ontario on June 8, 1995 losing by unanimous decision to a Canadian from New Westminster, British Columbia.
He was with two other Filipino boxers who also lost. Valero said after the fight, he frankly told his trainer that he would stay behind after a promoter had promised ?to take care? of him.
Valero, who had 13 wins against six losses, thanked a prominent Filipino boxing promoter-manager (Valero requested that the manager?s name be also withheld) for sending him to Canada even if he had two successive defeats before flying to Winnipeg.
He lost in a 10-round non-title fight in Tokyo in March 1995 and was knocked out in the 8th round in a Philippine Boxing Federation (PBF) title fight in a Visayas city several months earlier.
?Kon wala ako nagpa Canada, nangasawa na tani ko sa taga merkado. Basi imol pa ko asta karon (If I did not go to Canada, I would have married a woman in the public market and would have lived miserably,? narrated Valero who has sired two children to a Canadian woman.
After losing by technical knockout (TKO) in the 7th round of a 10-round fight in Winnipeg in November 1996, Valero said he decided to hang his gloves and worked in a construction firm. He never returned to the Philippines.
Valero recalled that his best win was against Edgar Perez in Cagayan de Oro whom he stopped in two rounds in December 1992.
He became a sparring partner of a former world champion who was jailed in Metro Manila.
?I?m happy with my life now. Just give my regards to all my friends in Negros. I missed them all,? Valero said in mixed Cebuano and Hiligaynon.
Valero said his papers when they applied for visa in the Canadian Embassy in Makati then were facilitated by the Games and Amusement Board (GAB).
?Nag hinulsol si Nolito kay nag balik pa sia sa Pilipinas pagkatapos ng laban, ako wala na. Kumusta ayhan si Nolito? (Nolito regretted his decision to come home after the fight. How is he now?) ? Valero concluded.
He did not elaborate.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Alex P. Vidal.
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