by Nick Giongco
Renerio Arizala, who suffered a sixth-round knockout at the hands of heavy-handed Japanese Tsuyoshi Tameda in Yokohama on Sunday, was cleared to fight by the Games and Amusements Board (GAB), boxing division head June Bautista said on Tuesday.
Bautista said that Arizala passed a medical test and that the decision to allow him to fight overseas stemmed from just being a six-rounder.
“It’s an opportunity for the boxers (to earn),” said Bautista, stressing that the GAB general ruling that requires boxers to have a modest win-loss mark in his last five doesn’t apply to Arizala.
Bautista said that a fighter who wishes to fight overseas should have a decent record in his last fight outings.
“This applies to 10-rounders,” said Bautista, noting that a Filipino boxer being contracted to fight a ten-rounder abroad must be armed with at least a win in his last three fights.
“The rule is that he should have won two of his last five bouts,” said Bautista.
Arizala entered the fight with a 13-8-3 win-loss-draw card with five KOs but he has been on a losing streak stretching back to 2015, having lost seven of his last ten bouts.
Bautista defended the GAB’a decision to give Arizala the go-signal since the agency studied the records of Arizala and Temada, who came into the fight with an 18-4-2 ledger with 16 KOs.
“Based on our study, they are equally-matched,” said Bautista, adding that Arizala had racked up a total of 160 rounds of fighting while Temada had just 94.
