Wakeup call for boxing

The sport of boxing cannot make distinctions between bigtime boxing and smalltime matches that do not enjoy the global appeal and prominence, not to mention the megabucks of, say, a Manny Pacquiao fight.

 To gloss over smalltime matches, for no other reason than that they precisely lack the global appeal, prominence and the megabucks of a Pacquiao fight, is to court disaster that can eventually affect the sport in no small measure.

 Last Saturday, at the Club Once Unidos in Mar de Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ormoc City-born Filipino boxer Johnriel Casimero stopped hometown hero Luis Alberto Lazarte in the 10th round to capture the interim IBF light flyweight crown.

 Casimero, though, never got to enjoy his moment inside the ring. Shortly after the referee waved off the fight to rule that Lazarte was unfit to continue, balls of paper, then water bottles, and finally chairs started to rain onto the ring.

 But the chaos did not end with the projectiles. Pretty soon, supporters of the Argentine clambered up the ring and began attacking both the Filipino boxer and his handlers, turning the event into a full-blown riot.

 What made the riot even worse was the failure of police and security personnel to secure the Filipinos. Casimero and his handlers were left to fend for themselves on top of the ring. The authorities took their own sweet time to bring the Filipinos to safety.

 When the authorities succeeded in bringing the Filipino entourage down from the ring, they continued to be attacked by every Argentinian who had a punch to throw and a kick to let go. The security personnel never went beyond going through the motions of securing them.

 And I am not making this up because the fight was covered live on television. You can always search for it on the Internet and judge for yourself how badly the aftermath of the fight was handled.

  The issue here is very clear: There was no importance given to the job of securing the visiting fighter and his handlers. And the issue does not just involve Argentina and its bunch of poor losers and hooligans.

 The issue can cut across borders. The issue is something that should be a wakeup call to authorities even here in the Philippines. Recently, there have been a lot of matches right here in our very own Cebu that featured foreign boxers.

 The question to ask is: How ready and prepared are local boxing promotions in securing the safety of all boxers, and not just the visiting foreign boxers? If we are prepared, then no problem. But if we are not, then let us not wait for something like Argentina to happen.

 A couple of weeks ago, another tragedy of a different sort struck smalltime boxing right here in the Philippines when Karlo Maquinto lapsed into a coma shortly after a fight and never recovered. He died days later in the hospital.

 In this case, the lapse was in the lack of medical equipment that could have been used quickly on Maquinto to at least give him a fighting chance as he was rushed to the hospital. As it turned out, all the boxing equipment required in the arena were not present.

Good for fight involving the likes of Pacquiao because, while boxing remains a dangerous sport, the global spotlight and the megabucks involved help ensure that everything is present for the protection of the superstars. But what about the small timers? Wake up, boxing!