WAKEE WORLD OF BOXING: Boxing remains in Salud’s heart even after retirement

The taxi ride to Wakee Salud’s place in Guadalupe in Cebu City took more than 30 minutes because of the traffic.

The journey should have been shorter.

His residence, tucked away from the Queen City’s hustle and bustle, no longer features a boxing gym.

After his near-death experience during Covid, Wakee decided to dismantle the ring and uninstall all boxing equipment, including heavy bags, speed ball and even the gear boxers usually utilize during training.

Only the blue-colored lettering on the wall, saying it was the headquarters of the once-thriving promotional and boxing stable outside the house remind passersby that it used to be a training facility.

The area where the ring once stood has been transformed into an anteroom where Salud stays chatting with longtime friends and visitors, oftentimes discussing the latest news just like that Wednesday morning when all the rave was about former President Rodrigo Duterte’s sudden arrest and travel to The Hague.

On top of his desk are different kinds of supplements and other knick-knacks such as election paraphernalia, a couple of national newspapers, a big jar of sandwich spread, plastic of lanzones and a king-sized calculator.

On the floor are sacks of rice and gallons and gallons of dishwashing liquid in different sizes and colors and variants.

Oh, there was also a hefty serving of siomai, a delectable bite-sized dumpling made of pork and shrimp from the nearby district of Tisa, that Wakee and his Manila-based- visitor sampled just before the main event at Conching’s, a local eatery famous for grilled native chicken and a bevy of mouthwatering Cebuano delicacies.

Behind him is a shelf stacked with the same dizzying assortment of items: Vitamins, perfume, biscuits, bottles of liquor, various documents and a still unopened package from an online seller.

Any sign that the exact spot where Wakee sat and held court was once a gym humming with activity and buzzing with the sound of punches hitting the bags and the pads was no longer visible.

But aside from politics, boxing was very much alive in the conversation.

Though no longer active, Wakee continues to watch and monitor boxing, the sport that gave him four world champions.

He rose to prominence in the 1980s when he steered the polio-stricken Dodie Boy Peñalosa to the world light-flyweight and fly titles.

Then in 1997, Dodie Boy’s younger brother Gerry took the spotlight when he won the world super-fly diadem in Tokyo.

Wakee’s other world champions include fly Malcolm Tunacao and Marlon Tapales, who became a unified world champion at super-bantamweight in 2023.

“If you want to become a successful promoter, you have to be ready to lose money. Boxing promotion is not a joke. If you are not willing to throw away money, nothing’s gonna happen. Promoting is serious business,” Wakee said.

The stocky Wakee knows what he is talking about.

He has promoted not just local shows in his native Cebu but in Manila as well.

Once upon a time, he was one of Philippine boxing’s most influential figures.

For a time, he was with Manny Pacquiao during the Filipino legend’s trying times in the United States when promotional heavyweights Top Rank and Goldenboy Promotions were fighting over the country’s greatest athlete of all time.

So, what made Wakee walk away from the fight game?

During the pandemic, he got hospitalized twice despite being fully vaccinated.

One time, his condition worsened and everyone thought that he would no longer survive.

He got intubated and spent one full month in the hospital.

“My hospital bill reached P2 million,” he said.

Some of his dear friends, including Pacquiao, helped to defray the cost.

“His nails were already turning blue,” one of his friends said.

“We all thought that was it.”

But Wakee, just like a gallant fighter who was knocked down, picked himself up from the floor and managed to beat the count.

These days, he just spends his time playing with his two grandchildren.

“I seldom go out nowadays,” Wakee said.

But when he does, most likely, it is boxing-related.

A few weeks ago, he was at NUSTAR, the premier five-star resort and casino, to watch a big card.

“I love boxing and I still love watching fights. I am no longer as active promoting and managing fighters as before but my heart remains in love with boxing.”