GAB chief proud of record

Games and Amusements Board ( GAB) chairman Juan Ramon Guanzon has cause to be proud of the agency’s achievements during his term. Under his leadership, GAB has not only expanded the number of sports under its supervision, but has updated its own rules and regulations, protected the safety and interests of both athletes and promoters, and put in place safeguards against those who seek to abuse pro athletes for profit. Having spent almost 60 years in sports, particularly boxing, Monchu Guanzon was first recommended to the GAB post by his brother-in-law, legislator Herminio Aquino, a relative of President Noynoy Aquino.

“He recommended me because he knew my knowledge of sports, especially boxing,” Guanzon explains. “As an eight-year-old, I first got involved in amateur boxing accompanying my father, who was the Western Visayas chairman of the national Diamond Gloves tournament for the Jaycees. I went with him wherever when I had no school, and was even a round boy for the three-round bouts.”

The young Monchu excitedly kept his round cards under his mattress, and spent much of his free time among the boxers, even sleeping in their quarters, listening to their dreams and problems. This left a mark on the young man who would eventually rise to head the government’s highest professional sports body. Guanzon is also in his second two-year term as head of the Orient-Pacific Boxing Federation.

In 1991, Guanzon became Negros Amateur Boxing Association ( NABA) president, and in 2006, became a boxing promoter in partnership with a cousin. But his popularity also had a downside, as all his friends would ask for tickets to his fight cards instead of buying them. Many name boxers today, such as Donnie Nietes, Merlito Sabillo, and the once-promising Genesis Servania came up through those fledgling amateur promotions in Negros.

When Guanzon and his board assumed office, the first thing they realized was that the law governing GAB was outmoded, having been enacted almost 40 years ago. Some of the rules and regulations were no longer pertinent, and the fees charged were nominal, since their value had not been adjusted since first being implemented. Knowing how financially taxing being a promoter is from experience, the chairman opted not to increase licensing fees and the like. But he could do something about the regulations.

“We revised the rules and regulations, but not without consultations with the stakeholders, the promoters, boxers, managers, trainers, referees, everybody,” says Guanzon, who once also had a stake in the Metropolitan Basketball Association’s Negros Slashers of his home town Bacolod. “Since it was difficult for all them to come to Manila, we also had consultations in Cebu for the Visayas, and Cagayan de Oro for Mindanao.”

Making boxers’ safety of utmost importance, the GAB enforced a mandatory rest period for boxers and other contact sport athletes, regardless of how long their fight lasted, whether it was one round or 12. Time was when fighters would get back into the fight after only two weeks. Now, there is a mandatory minimum 30 days before they can fight again for shorter fights, for six round fights and above, the period is 45 days. But the agency also introduced a system for rating how hard fights are for each boxer involved. Even if you won the fight, you still may have taken more punishment than your opponent and could suffer brain damage and other adverse effects. Guanzon was at ringside when Z Gorres collapsed after a very hard victory and never fought again. GAB and its medical team now rate fights as follows: easy fight, light punishment, medium punishment, heavy punishment and very heavy punishment. Promoters, managers and even the boxers always ask to shorten the respite so they can make more money, but the rating system justifies the length of rest.

In 2014, the GAB proudly organized the first Philippine boxing convention in decades, for the benefit for everyone involved. The resource speakers were all world- class referees, judges and ring physicians, among others. Last year, they followed this up with the OPBF convention in Bacolod. (In 1989, the OPBF named its Boxer of the Year trophy after former junior lightweight champion Flash Elorde.) This year’s OPBF convention was even attended by World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman.

Whereas most sportsmen would avoid being in government like the plague for fear of red tape and politics, Guanzon’s goal was to actually make government work better for sports people. He streamlined applications and simplified requirements without sacrificing safety or quality. His understanding of the inner workings of sports promotion have made the government agency easier to deal with, a fact even One Championship CEO Victor Cui acknowledged. Under his term, the GAB was able to include motocross and mixed martial arts among the sports it regulates, and is now working to add jetski under its umbrella. And although his mandate is to watch over as many sports as possible, Guanzon also understands that for some sports, it just isn’t feasible at this stage of their development. In the case of women’s volleyball, for example, which has grown much in the last few years, there isn’t enough income for players to play the sport full-time. The GAB chair says it would be unfair to insist on supervising the sport and make tournament organizers spend even more money simply on government regulation while the sport is still in its developmental phase.

The GAB is also trying its best to clamp down on unlicensed boxers who travel abroad to fight under fake papers or false pretenses. Some pose as tourists even though they are fighting professionally; others assume new identities simply to be able to fight more often. They receive a minimum six- month suspension. But the agency does not have the resources to catch everybody who leaves the country. Within the country, there are still many aspiring boxers who fight in the provinces during town fiestas and other celebrations without GAB clearance. Some get knocked out and fight again somewhere else the following week, doing themselves irreparable physical harm in the process. That’s why, if he were to be allowed another term as chair, Guanzon says he will move to add more regional offices around the country and get stronger legal backing to keep boxers from doing harm to themselves by getting into unregulated fights here and abroad. As of now, GAB has extension offices only in Bacolod, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan De Oro and Zamboanga, and none in Luzon.

On a related matter, Guanzon is firm in his belief that boxers fighting under the new rules being implemented internationally by AIBA are professionals.

“Ever since, I’ve been against it, ever since. As far as we’re concerned, they can fight anywhere they want, as long as they get the appropriate licenses,” Guanzon insists. “Some of them even fight 12 rounds. They aren’t protected by head gear, the rules are professional rules. In effect, AIBA is the promoter, the national association is the manager. AIBA wants to dominate boxing. We want to protect them in to prevent anything from happening to them.”

Regardless what happens after the new government assumes office, for Monchu Guanzon, the battle to protect boxers and promoters will never end.