Salud had protested the plan because Peñalosa who was rated No. 1 agreed to step aside to allow a rematch between Tokuyama and In Joo Cho who is rated No. 2 on condition that the fight will be staged in Pyongyang and establish a historic "first" for the WBC.
Tokuyama is a Japan-born, North Korean while In Joo Cho is from South Korea and Salud was willing to forego the mandatory title shot in the interest of promoting peace through sports.
When he learned that promoter Kusung Lee was set to stage the fight in Seoul in violation of their agreement reached at the WBC convention in Mexico last October, Salud protested.
However, on learning that Kusung Lee "even went to the extent of inviting Tokuyama’s father and other Japanese-North Korean personalities to accompany him to convince the government in North Korea to approve the Tokuyama-Cho fight in May in Pyongyang," Salud relented.
In his letter to Sulaiman, Salud said the actions of Kusung Lee was "more than enough show of good faith and whatever be the results" he was withdrawing his protest against the championship no matter where it is held.
Salud said that in the meantime Peñalosa, "to keep in shape" will fight former WBA junior flyweight champion Keiji Yamaguchi and expects the winner of the Tokuyama-Cho fight to defend the title against Peñalosa within 90 days from May 20.
In a separate fax to Mauro Betti, chairman of the WBC International Championships, Salud said that both he and well-known Japanese matchmaker Joe Koizumi "believe that Yamaguchi will be a worthy challenger" since the young Japanese with a record of 29-6-1 with 11 KO’s had gone the distance with In Joo Cho in a title fight.
Penalosa lost the title to In Joo Cho in Seoul in 1999 on a controversial split decision and suffered a similar fate on Jan. 2 also in the South Korean capital.