Jhack Tepora disappointed with ouster of older brother

WORLD Boxing Association (WBA) interim world featherweight champion Jhack “El Kapitan” Tepora isn’t happy with the ouster of his older brother Jingjing Tepora from the Omega Pro Sports International (OPSI) team.

The 23-year-old unbeaten knockout artist told Cebu Daily News he was disappointed with the decision of the team.

Jingjing used to be the trainer of OPSI, which is the promoter and manager of Jhack.

“Nalain kos [OPSI] kay ilahang gipapahawa akong kuya Jingjing ug mas gipili pa nila si Jingoy [Julius Erving Junco],” Jhack said.

(I am disappointed with OPSI because they let go of my older brother Jingjing and instead chose Jingoy.)

Since Jingjing’s departure, Junco has taken over the training duties for OPSI. But Junco is facing charges of physical injury for allegedly attacking someone outside a bar in Barangay Kasambagan, Cebu City, last August.

“Wala lang silay aksyon sa kaso ni Jingoy pero ako-a ganing maguwang maka sala lang og gamay, gipapahawa dayun,” said Jhack, who holds a record of 22-0-0 (win-loss-draw) with 17 wins via knockout.

(They didn’t do anything with the case of Jingoy but when my brother made a little mistake, they immediately let him go.)

According to OPSI Vice President Jerome Calatrava, the reason why the team parted ways with Jingjing is because of “infractions he committed during his employment when he was working with us.”

He didn’t elaborate on the details.

In the case of Junco, Calatrava said there was no sanction given to him because his alleged wrongdoing had nothing to do with OPSI.

“It’s Jingoy’s personal matter, the company will not involve itself in personal matters,” added Calatrava.

With regard to Jhack’s frustrations with OPSI, Calatrava said they just need to talk to the promising boxer regarding the issue.

“We might as well sit down and talk about the whole story,” Calatrava said.

Despite his frustrations because of the ouster of his older brother, Jhack said he is still happy for Jingjing since he was recently hired to train former WBO world bantamweight champion Tomoki Kameda in Japan.

He admitted, though, that he will miss his brother at the gym.

“Jingjing and my other kuya Pingping trained and honed my boxing skills since I was 8 years old, so I will surely miss those times. But I have to be happy for him because [the move to Team kameda] will surely help him financially and will give him bigger breaks abroad,” the younger Tepora said.

Christopher “Pingping” Tepora also used to be the chief trainer of the Omega Boxing Gym but parted ways with the latter a few years back and now serves as the chief trainer and matchmaker of another Cebu-based boxing gym, Big Yellow Boxing.