Julaton willing to fight for PHIL Team
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 30 Jan 2011
Filipino-American World Boxing Organization super-bantamweight champion Ana Julaton would be willing to shed of her professional status and represent the Philippines in next year?s London Olympic Games.
That is if the International Olympic approves a pending proposal to allow former professional fighters to compete in women?s boxing in the quadrennial conclave.
?I am keeping my options open, but, if former pros will be allowed to fight in the Olympics, I might return to the amateur ranks and fulfill my long-time dream of winning an Olympic gold medal, a dream I had nurtured during my amateur years and even now,? the 30-year-old San Francisco-based fighter said during a talk with newsmen Friday after a press conference was held to promote her coming fight with veteran Francesca Alcanter.
Julaton, who owns a 7-2-1 win-loss-draw record with one knockout, is putting her 122-pound title at stake against the Kansas City-based Alcanter (18-9-1) on Feb. 25 at the Craneway Pavilion in Point Richmond in California. The fight, dubbed as the ?Return of the Hurricane,? will be telecast live on TV 5 during the launching of the network?s Aksyon TV UHF Channel 41.
Julaton and her manager, Angelo Reyes, were in Manila last week along with former Canadian Airline executive Allen Tremblay of Orion Sports Management which promotes Julaton to finalize the fight telecast with TV5.
It was Reyes who disclosed, during the presscon, that there, indeed, is a proposal to open the gate of the Olympic Games to allow ex-pros to represent their country in the Games as way of promoting women?s boxing.
?But since It has been Ana?s dream of winning an Olympic gold while representing the Philippines, it?s not far fetch that she would relinquish her pro status just so she could realize that dream,? Reyes said.
?It would be a great, great honor for me to win for he Philippines its first ever Olympic gold medal,? Julaton told sportswriters gathered in one table right after the presser.
?As I said, I?m keeping my options open. I still have some commitment to fight as a pro and I will be concentrating on that. One fight at a time,? she said. ?As a pro, I am already carrying the country?s colors in all mi fights. When the time comes that I will be fighting for an Olympic gold, then I will.?
Julaton, who started her pro carrer in 2007, won the vacant WBO 122-pound crown on a split 10-round decision over Mexico?s Maria Elena Villalobos in Ontario. Canada last June.
Alcanter, 36, used to fight as a featherweight and super-featherweight and cannot be taken for granted, according to Julaton herself. ?She?s definitely bigger than me at 126 and a few inches taller.?
?But she?s going down in weight, so that would minimize her size advantage. We?re suppose to weigh 122 at weigh-in and she could bloat to probably 130. Then she would be slower,? she said.
Julaton said Alcanter is a hard puncher as her record shows but, but Reyes dismissed that edge, saying???Ana is too fast and too skillful. Ana?s got the best jab in the business. I can see it ending in the eighth or ninth round with Ana winning by technical knockout.?
Julaton said she?s in great shape this early and with the coming stint with five-time ?Trainer of the Year? Freddie Roach at the latter?s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, she expects to complete about 90 rounds of sparring in three weeks. Sparring will be every other day, starting with eight rounds then progressing to 10.
Julaton and her manager left yesterday for L.A, and will be reporting for training at Wild Card Monday (Tuesday in Manila)
While in the country, Julaton kept her twice-a-day workout schedule, moving from the Makati Shangri-La Gym, to the Punch Out gym in Salcedo Village and the Elorde Boxing Gym in??Quezon City where eight-division world champ Manny Pacquiao trained briefly before his with Mexican Antonio Margarito November last year.??
This early, several fights are are already being lined up for Julaton in April, another title meeting??in Manila and July in Canada.
Julaton said aims to unify the world super-bantamweight division as she looks forward to a rematch with lure Lisa Brown, against whom she lost on points in a bloody encounter last March for the vacant WBA crown.
?I?d love to meet her again,? said Julaton. ?It won?t be about Lisa. It?ll be about me. I wasn?t myself in our first fight. I didn?t do what I was supposed to. I didn?t do what I was capable of doing. But it?ll be different when we fight again,? she said by way of recalling that defeat.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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