MELVIN JERUSALEM winning a world title overseas just before the weekend sets the tone for more Filipinos to achieve the same result, according to international matchmaker Sean Gibbons.
Gibbons, head of Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions, told BusinessMirror on Monday that super flyweight Jade Bornea, super bantamweight Marlon Tapales, Mark Magsayo, Vincent Astrolabio and Reymart Gaballo could follow the star set by Jerusalem.
“Melvin Jerusalem has already set the tone, he set the bar for these other guys getting ready to fight that you can go to other countries, you can beat some guys and achieve your dreams,” Gibbons said. “More to come for Filipino fighters.”
Jerusalem started the year with a bang with a stunning second-round technical knockout win that snatched him Japanese Masataka Taniguchi’s World Boxing Organization minimum weight belt in Osaka Friday.
The country was without a world champion for six months after Mark Magsayo lost his World Boxing Council featherweight title to Mexico’s Rey Vargas last July.
Gibbons said the six-month drought is now lost in the past.
“The Philippines had five or six champions before, but as champions, things happen along the way—you fight tough fights, you have other personal things, things go wrong,” he said. “So we lost some big fights but never fear. The Philippines is always here, and always ready for a comeback.”
“Philippine boxing has never been so healthy and exciting going into any year,” he added.
Mandatory challenger Bornea will be up against International Boxing Federation (IBF) super flyweight champion Fernando Daniel Martinez later this year in a still to be undetermined venue, as well as Tapales, who will also face IBF super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan.
Magsayo, according to Gibbons, will also fight in March along with former IBF minimum weight world champion Rene Mark Cuarto.