JUST A day after announcing that female referee Sparkle Lee will handle the WBO World minimumweight championship fight between Vic “Vicious” Saludar and defending champion Kosei Tanaka of Japan, WBO decided to replace her with a veteran referee.
WBO president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel requested that veteran referee Michael Ortega replace Lee to man the world title bout scheduled tomorrow in Nagoya, Japan.
The reason Lee was replaced by Ortega was because WBO wanted to utilize the officials who are already in Japan.
Ortega was initially assigned to handle the WBO super-flyweight title defense of Naoya Inoue and Filipino challenger Warlito Parrenas in Tokyo today.
Ortega, an American, was in Manila in May 2012 and handled the WBO flyweight title bout in which Brian Viloria scored a 9th-round TKO over Omar Nino Romero at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City. He also served as referee in the middleweight title fight between Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Geale. (with Philboxing.com)