Despite quitting on his stool, Melvin Jerusalem still deserves a pat on the back for his gallant stand in his failed bid to make the first defense of his World Boxing Organization minimumweight crown over the weekend in Indio, California.
C’mon guys. Give the fellow a break.
While surrendering is often seen as a sign of cowardice, it shouldn’t be the case when Jerusalem fought rising Puerto Rican star Oscar Collazo.
It was clear during the first three rounds that Jerusalem fought to win.
He threw bombs and traded with Collazo.
Jerusalem didn’t travel from the Philippines to the US West Coast to hand the WBO-105-lb strap to Collazo on a silver platter.
It’s just that there were a few factors that may have contributed to his early downfall.
A couple of weeks ago, I expressed my deep concern over Jerusalem’s late arrival on American soil.
Being a first-timer in the US, I knew from experience that for a fighter to draw the best out of his performance, he should at least be there no less than two weeks before the fight.
If there was a way, it would have been better if a fighter vying for a world title setup camp in the US at least four weeks.
Ever wonder why Manny Pacquiao sets up camp a the Wild Card a month before or even eight to 12 weeks before his fight?
He threw bombs and traded with Collazo.
There’s jet lag. There’s the weather and other intangibles, things that could bother or distract a US newbie like Jerusalem.
The thing is that Jerusalem’s handers knew all about this and JC Mananquil, who promotes the Bukidnon puncher, even had a terrific plan.
Mananquil had done his homework and submitted the necessary travel documents to the US Embassy so Jerusalem can spend the most crucial stage of his buildup in the US by the first few days of May.
But things didn’t fall into place and Jerusalem was only told about the approval of his papers sometime 9 or 10 May.
That didn’t mean that he already had the visa by that time and it took a few more days before Jerusalem finally got his, leaving him with no other choice but to leave around 10 days before.
I am not saying that had Jerusalem been in the US several weeks earlier, he would have beaten Collazo.
Jerusalem was up against a quality foe in Collazo and he could have come up with something better if only he had been training in the US much earlier.
Conditioning is vital in a big fight and clearly, Jerusalem wasn’t in tip-top shape because he was still jet-lagged and this malady takes up a few days up to a few weeks to get rid of.
All I am saying is Jerusalem’s hold on the title was starting to slip away when he could not get to the US way ahead of his title defense.
