Melvin Jerusalem guaranteed P6.3M

Pint-sized Filipino puncher Melvin Jerusalem and his team have been guaranteed a whopping purse of $114,000 (P6.3 million) when he battles mandatory challenger Oscar Collazo of Puerto Rico on 27 May.

The fight was announced after the World Boxing Organization awarded the promotional rights to Golden Boy Promotions and Cotto Promotions.

The joint effort submitted a bid of $152,000 to the WBO, beating Kameda Promotions of Japan, which fell short after submitting a $101,000 offer.

Under WBO rules, the champion gets 75 percent of the winning total bid while 25 percent—$38,000—goes to Collazo, the southpaw challenger.

No venue has been picked for the scheduled 1-round minimumweight title clash but two US cities—Los Angeles and Dallas—have been mentioned.

Another prime candidate to stage the fight is San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, which is a short drive from Collazo's hometown of Villalba.

Jerusalem had won the WBO 105-lb diadem with a one-punch, second-round knockout of Masataka Taniguchi on 6 January in Osaka.

Presently, Jerusalem, who holds a 20-2 record with 12 knockouts, is already in training mode in Cebu City.

Michael Domingo, who serves as Jerusalem's trainer, told Daily Tribune that they haven't received official word about the showdown with the unbeaten Collazo.

Still, Doningo and Jerusalem are not takin things for granted.

In fact, the fighter is not only training regularly.

"He has already started doing strength and conditioning training and even sparring," Domingo said.

Managed by the Japan-based ZIP Boxing and promoted by JC Mananquil's SanMan Boxing of General Santos City, Jerusalem is the country's only reigning world boxing champion.

Mananquil said Kameda Promotions had wanted to bring the fight on Japanese soil.

"(We were) outbid," Mananquil said, adding that he is hoping that the Oscar De La Hoya-owned GBP and Cotto group would hold the fight in the familiar confines of Los Angeles instead of Texas (Dallas) or Puerto Rico.