By Ronnie Nathanielsz

The manager of WBC minimumweight Silver champion Denver Cuelo, Aljoe Jaro, has filed a formal administrative protest with WBC president Jose Sulaiman over what his lawyer claims was “a serious breach of protocol, in the conduct of the championship.”

 

Atty. Richard Flores of the law firm of Flores, Mendiola and Associates pointed out that under Rules 4.7 and 4.8 which require urine samples to be taken before the fight and Rule 4.9 where it is mandatory to take the urine samples of both boxers for laboratory examination for compliance with anti-doping rules, were not done.

  

The formal administrative protest pursuant t Rule 5.2 of the WBC Rules and Regulations maintained that “it is the responsibility of the WBC Supervisor in charge (Patrick Cusik) who should have strictly enforced the rules since it was for the World Championship belt of our prestigious World Boxing Council.”

 

The lawyer told Sulaiman that the “serious charges should merit an immediate reaction and would justify, after due investigation, your issuance of an order for a rematch.”

 

At the same time Cuello’s manager requested Sulaiman to issue an order to champion Xiong Zhao Zhong who retained his title via a majority decision last Saturday at the World Trade Center in Dubai, not to engage in any fights “while the investigation is going on.”

 

However, the lawyer said that “in the unlikely event that our request be denied, may we, in the alternative, seek the mandatory right to challenge the winner” even as he warned that they will be “constrained to file the necessary legal action in a competent Court of jurisdiction, to protect the legal rights of manager Aljoe Jaro and challenger  Denver Cuello.

 

Cusick who was also the fight supervisor when Zhong won the vacant title beating unheralded Mexican Javier Hernandez Resendiz in Kunming last November was roundly criticized for his failure to ensure that Zhong and Cuello were paid their purses right after the official weigh-in even as Aljoe Jaro said the WBC supervisor was nowhere to be found after the fight ended with even the officials not being paid by KO Promotions headed by Zach Taumafai.

 

krikya360.com/Manila Standard’s contacts in Dubai revealed that after KO Promotions announced that the fight card had been called off an unidentified Chinese businessman offered to advance $60,000 which reportedly covered payment for the venue, security, the ring, chairs and venue personnel.

 

Zhong’s manager Liu Gang confirmed that the champion, like Cuello, did not receive his purse with Taumafai submitting an agreement to Aljoe Jaro and an initial payment of $2,500 while promising to settle his obligations including the money advanced by the manager for their airline tickets by installments up to the end of July.

 

Cuello’s purse, originally reported to be $40,000 was actually $24,000 or what KO Promotions said was 40 percent of the purse of the champion which was $60,000.