MANILA – A Negrense boxer should be a part of the undercard of Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao’s WBA welterweight belt defense against Adrien Broner on Jan. 19 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
But for some reasons, Jay-R Raquinel was denied his chance to fight in the same card with the only boxer to win eight world championships in as many divisions and also to have his United States debut.
Raquinel’s boxing promoter Brico Santig saidthe Candoni, Negros Occidental native was earlier invited to join the Pacquiao-Broner card but was later retracted with the fight card already full.
“Ininvite si Jay-R na mapasama sana sa undercard nina Pacquiao at Broner but binawi din later kasi puno na daw ‘yung card at hindi na siya maisisingit,” Santig told Panay News.
The invitation of Raquinel did not come as a surprise following an impressive showing this year that saw him defending his OPBF flyweight championship against Japanese fighters Keizuke Nakayama and Shun Kozaka in Japan.
However, the only dent to the campaign of Raquinel this year was his unanimous decision loss to Wulan Tuolehazi for the WBC silver flyweight championship last September in Changsha, China.
Regardless of the incident, Raquinel did not have hard feelings and will instead focus on his attention on trying to retain his OPBF belt next year and possibly land a slot in Pacquiao card.
“Hindi naman sumama ang loob ni Jay-R. Siguro sayang din kasi rare opportunity but I told him to just continue preparing and shift his focus on his title defense next year,” Santig said.
The 21-year-old Raquinel currently holds an impressive 10-1-1 win-loss-draw ring record, with seven of his wins tallied by way of stoppages./PN
