Melvin Jerusalem wearing the WBO world minimumweight belt. | Photo from Jerusalem’s Facebook page
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Former world champion Melvin “Gringo” Jerusalem entered 2024 as a top five contender in the minimumweight division according to Boxrec.
The 29-year-old pride of Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon was ranked No. 3 as the best minimumweight contender for 2024.
He joined the likes of top-ranked World Boxing Council (WBC) world minimumweight champion Yudai Shigeoka, World Boxing Organization (WBO) world minimumweight champion Oscar Collazo, Panya Pradabsri of Thailand, and International Boxing Federation (IBF) champion Ginjiro Shigeoka in the top five list.
Boxrec is one of the trusted boxing websites that holds the official record and information of the world’s professional and amateur boxers similar to Wikipedia.
Jerusalem’s inclusion to its top five list is a perfect timing as he has been longing for redemption.
This was after he lost his WBO world minimumweight title to Puerto Rican Collazo in his first title defense on May 27, 2023 in the United States.
However, Jerusalem will likely head into another direction after he was pitted by numerous Facebook boxing pages to fight Yudai Shigeoka for the WBC world title which he gamely approved through his social media posts.
In an interview with CDN Digital, Jerusalem said he would gladly welcome the opportunity for a world title shot.
“Ganahan kaayo ko ana, another opportunity na pud kung mosugot siya mo challenge ko niya. Mao pa naman akong favorite nga belt,” said Jerusalem.
However, he made it clear also that he is also gunning to reclaim the WBO title from Collazo.
“Pero sa WBO ta gihatag, gusto ko mahatagan ug chance,” said Jerusalem of the Cebu-based ZIP Sanman Boxing Team.
Jerusalem’s reign as a world champion only lasted for five months. He won the title in January 2023 in a shocking fashion after knocking out and dethroning WBO world champion Masataka Taniguchi in the second round of their bout in Osaka, Japan.
However, he lost the title via a seventh round stoppage in his first title defense in the United States against Collazo.
One of the biggest factors of his defeat was his poor adjustment to the different timeline of the United States whereas fighting in Japan which is only one hour ahead of the Philippines.
Despite the huge setback, Jerusalem bounced back strong by beating fellow Filipino Francis Jay Diaz last October in General Santos City via unanimous decision, improving his record to 21 wins, 12 knockouts and three defeats.
He is currently ranked No. 5 in the WBO and No. 7 in the WBC.
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