GUANZON IS NOW GAB’S CONSULTANT IN BOXING

 

By LITO DELOS REYES

FORMER Games and Amusements Board (GAB) chairman Juan Ramon Guanzon is now already a consultant for boxing under new GAB chairman Abraham Khalil “Baham” Mitra.

“Yes, he asked me to be a consultant for boxing. We are also friends just like our late fathers and he knows my background in boxing,” Guanzon told Fight News Asia.

Guanzon will also still be at the office at the GAB head office in Makati once a month for the ratings of the Orient Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF). He is in his second two-year term as OPBF president.

Mitra, a former Palawan Governor, also told Guanzon that he can also hold the OPBF office also in the GAB.

“So I will still be coming here in Makati at least once a month,” said Guanzon, who hails from Bacolod City.

Guanzon is proud of the government agency’s achievements during his term. Under his leadership, GAB has not only expanded the number of sports under its supervision, but has updated its own rules and regulations, protected the safety and interests of both athletes and promoters, and put in place safeguards against those who seek to abuse pro athletes for profit.

Guanzon had revised some of the GAB rules and regulations which were outmoded and have not been enacted almost 40 years ago.

“We revised the rules and regulations, but not without consultations with the stakeholders, the promoters, boxers, managers, trainers, referees, everybody,” said Guanzon.

However, Guanzon still opted not to increase licensing fees and other fees.

In 2014, GAB organized the first Philippine boxing convention in decades, for the benefit for everyone involved. The resource speakers were all world-class referees, judges and ring physicians, among others.

It was followed up with the OPBF convention in Bacolod City last year. And this year’s OPBF convention was even attended by World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman.

The GAB also conducted consultations in Cebu for the Visayas, and Cagayan de Oro for Mindanao. GAB is now enforcing a mandatory rest period for boxers and other contact sports athletes, regardless of how long their fight lasted, whether it was one round or 12.

There is now a mandatory minimum of 30 days before they can fight again for shorter fights, for six round fights and above, the period is 45 days. But GAB had also introduced a system for rating how hard fights are for each boxer involved.

GAB currently has extension offices only in Davao, Cebu, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga but none in Luzon. Guanzon said that the GAB should add more regional offices around the country and get stronger legal backing to keep boxers from doing harm to themselves by getting into unregulated fights here and abroad.

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