Mondejar, original Team Pacquiao member, 90

Lito Mondejar, a member of the original Team Pacquiao, passed away Wednesday in Kidapawan, North Cotabato.

He was 90.

Before retiring from boxing, Mondejar used to form a solid triumvirate with Rod Nazario and Moy Lainez as they joined hands in plotting the career of Manny Pacquiao in the United States.

Nazario died in 2009 while Lainez followed four years later.

Even before Pacquiao’s US invasion, Mondejar was heavily involved in Pacquiao’s career as one of the two owners of the L&M Gym (Lainez and Mondejar) on Paquita Street in Sampaloc where the fighter trained exclusively.

It was also the weekly television boxing show Blow-By-Blow run by Mondejar, Lainez and Nazario that launched the career of Pacquiao, who went on to become boxing’s only eight-division champion.

When Pacquiao was still under the management team headed by Nazario, Mondejar and Lainez also joined the trip to the United States.

Mondejar was present when Pacquiao drew with Agapito Sanchez in San Francisco in November 2001, knocked out Emmanuel Lucero in Los Angeles in July 2003, stopped Marco Antonio Barrera in San Antonio in November 2003, drew with Juan Manuel Marquez in May 2004 in Las Vegas and lost to Erik Morales in March 2005 in Las Vegas.

In the 1960s until the early 1970s, Mondejar and company were the major forces in Philippine boxing as they were closely aligned with another esteemed Filipino sportsman, Rodrigo Salud, who drafted the by-laws of the World Boxing Council (WBC).

That time, the Philippines was the headquarters of the WBC since the boxing body’s president was another confidant of theirs, Justiniano Montano Jr.

Aside from Pacquiao, Mondejar also managed former world champions Pedro Adigue and Tacy Macalos and was also a part of the team of Erbito Salavarria, another ex-world titleholder.