MEPRANUM?S PURSE CREDITED BY MEXICAN PROMOTER MONDAY IN LA
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 22 Jun 2010
The trainer of flyweight Richie Mepranum confirmed that the purse for Mepranum's WBO world title fight had been deposited in the bank account of Manny Pacquiao?s adviser Michael Koncz Monday morning.
Mepranum?s bid to win the vacant WBO flyweight title was crushed by veteran Mexican Julio Cesar ?Pingo? Miranda who ended the Filipino southpaw?s dreams with a 5th round knockout at the Convention Center in Puebla, Mexico last June 6.
Trainer Nathan Tinagsa, who trains fighters of Maasim, Sarangani Mayor Jojo Lopez, told us that he and Koncz checked with the Wells Fargo branch in Los Angeles and were informed that the funds had been wired by Zanfer Promotions of respected Mexican promoter Fernando Beltran to the account of Koncz which in some measure belied reports that the fighter hadn?t been paid.
It was explained to us that fighters including pound-for-pound king Pacquiao seldom if ever get paid immediately after a fight while most promoters forward the money by international transfer especially if the fight is held in Mexico.
Nathan to some extent blamed the delay on the promoters in Mexico and the procedure of international bank transfers which take some time.
The trainer said that Mepranum returned to Manila this morning for his wedding next week amidst concerns that he would not get his purse on time. There were also indications that he wasn?t fully focused on the fight because of his forthcoming marriage and the change of opponent weeks before the title fight.
Originally scheduled to fight southpaw Jesus Jimenez who was knocked out in the first round in a battle for the vacant WBC silver title by Edren Dapudong last Sunday, Mepranum learned later that his opponent had been replaced by ?Pingo? Miranda, an orthodox fighter who could punch.
At the same time the trainer admitted what we had reported one week before the fight that Mepranum who fell ill when he first arrived in Los Angeles couldn?t train and on top of that ?suffered an injury? one week before the fight.
He said Mepranum was really short on training including sparring and that he sparred only three times and at the most ?could only go six rounds.?
Nathan couldn?t explain why they had failed to seek a postponement although when we checked with Koncz about the injury he told us he had spoken to the team who were already in Mexico and they didn?t inform him about the reported injury.
The trainer also admitted that when they first arrived in Los Angeles to begin training at the Wild Card Gym of Freddie Roach both Pacquiao and Koncz who handle Mepranum were not there and they initially had a problem regarding their needs but that Filipino trainer Restituto ?Buboy? Fernandez had helped them get their food supplies etc from a Filipino store in LA.
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