Jerusalem is GAB’s Boxer of the Month
Melvin Jerusalem (left) and his trainer Michael Domingo (right) show the WBO world minimumweight belt. | Glendale Rosal
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) world minimumweight champion Melvin “Gringo” Jerusalem got a much-needed motivation ahead of his title defense after being named the “Boxer of the Month” by the Games and Amusements Board (GAB).
GAB, the official regulating and licensing body for professional sports in the country revealed its monthly Philippine Boxing Ratings for the month of January recently with Jerusalem taking the spotlight.
It can be recalled that the 28-year-old Jerusalem of ZIP Sanman Boxing Team dethroned the erstwshile WBO world minimumweight champion Masataka Taniguchi via a second round technical knockout last January in Osaka, Japan.
The victory not just put Jerusalem on the list of Filipino world boxing champions, but ultimately ended the Philippines’ long world champion drought in boxing.
Jerusalem who is based in Cebu has an upcoming mandatory title defense against Puerto Rico’s Oscar Collazo.
The WBO recently announced that Jerusalem and Collazo’s camps didn’t reach a deal in its 30-day negotiation, forcing the WBO to have a purse bid to make the fight happen.
The bidding minimum is $80,000 with Jerusalem getting 75 percent of the purse on the winning amount as the defending champion. The WBO recently ordered Jerusalem to defend the world champion title against Collazo who has a record of six wins with four knockouts.
Jerusalem has the upper hand in terms of experience as he sports a record of 20 wins with 12 knockouts and two defeats.
Jerusalem recently announced that he already started training a week after he clinched the world title to prepare for his first title defense.
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