Daily Tribune
WBC minimumweight champion Melvin Jerusalem (right) will spend the next three weeks undergoing conditioning training in Nagoya under the guidance of his manager Noboyuki Matsuura (middle) and a Japanese boxing coach.
Photograph Courtesy of Melvin Jerusalem
Melvin Jerusalem kicks off the first phase of his two-month buildup for the second defense of the World Boxing Council (WBC) minimumweight crown in Nagoya, Japan, site of his 30 March rematch with Yudai Shigeoka.
To get things going, Jerusalem left Manila on Friday morning and was picked up at Nagoya’s Chubu Centrair International Airport a few hours later by his Japanese promoter Noboyuki Matsuura.
Jerusalem will be back in the country on 19 February for training camp proper in Cebu City under his longtime cornerman Michael Domingo, who could not join him in Nagoya since he is attending to another boxer in Russia.
One of just two reigning Filipino world champions, Jerusalem scored a resounding 12-round unanimous decision over Mexican mandatory challenger Luis Castillo in September last year.
In March 2024, Jerusalem floored Shigeoka twice en route to a split decision in Nagoya to snatch the WBC 105-lb crown.
Representing the Sanman Boxing Stable of General Santos City, Jerusalem is targeting a rematch with Puerto Rican Oscar Collazo towards the end of the year or in early 2026.
Collazo, the current World Boxing Organization and World Boxing Association titleholder, defeated Jerusalem in 2023, ending the Filipino’s first reign as world champion.
