Having learned a valuable lesson the last time, the camp of World Boxing Council (WBC) minimumweight champion Melvin Jerusalem has already identified two ideal sites for setting up camp.
As negotiations get closer for Jerusalem to face Puerto Rican Oscar Collazo in a three-belt showdown, JC Mananquil, who runs the Filipino champion’s affairs, said on Tuesday that New York or Miami could host the Filipino champion’s final month of training.
There is an abundance of flights to Puerto Rico from New York that can be completed in three hours and 45 minutes.
Miami is nearer and travel to San Juan — Puerto Rico’s capital and venue of the proposed bout — is just two hours and 30 minutes.
Los Angeles or Las Vegas, the popular camp sites of Filipino fighters, are simply too far and travel to Puerto Rico would take a full day from there.
“Los Angeles is in another world,” Mananquil told DAILY TRIBUNE, stressing that setting up base there would not be as beneficial as sending Jerusalem to the East Coast.
The undefeated Collazo holds the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and World Boxing Association 105-pound straps.
Jerusalem paid dearly for coming to the United States ten days before the fight when he met Collazo in May 2023.
Collazo forced Jerusalem, then the WBO champion, to quit on his stool after the seventh round as he was still suffering from the ill effects of jet lag.
Not this time, Mananquil said.
“We won’t let that happen again,” he said.