By Héctor Villarreal
In the midst of the atmosphere of celebration that surrounds the sports community of the Dominican Republic for the victories of Alberto Puello and Carlos Adames last Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada, former WBA minimumweight champion Erick “Mini PacMan” Rosa (7-0, 2 Kos) looks forward to play as local, once again, on his next title chance, now as a 108-pounder, with the support of his country’s government.
After Japan´s Kenshiro Teraji vacated the unified WBA and WBC belts a few days ago, Rosa, who also moved up in weight from mínimum to claim the WBA Gold world lightfly belt by outpointing Mexican Yudel Reyes on April 5, became the top-ranked challenger, and awaits for his chance to become the main title holder on his new weight division.
The second ranked fighter is the Venezuelan Carlos Cañizales, who has already stated that he has another commitment so everything now points to the Japanese Shokichi Iwata (12-1, 9 KOs), which indicates that the negotiation will require a joint effort by Shuan Boxing and the government.
“This is undoubtedly one of the most important achievements in the history of Dominican boxing and represents a valuable opportunity to show our young people that, with effort and discipline, they can improve their quality of life and give more sporting prestige to the country” said Rosa, adding that “despite having trained in Las Vegas on recent years, I had always fight in Santo Domingo, thanks to the support of President Luis Abinader and his team. I have disputed International titles in six of my seven pro fights, including Interim, Regular and Gold World championships” he added.
Rosa, 24, debuted on October 24th 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, when boxing was on pause in most countries around the world. He and many other young Dominican fighters benefited from a project led by the Government of the Dominican Republic, which successfully involved promotional companies such as Shuan Boxing, which manages MiniPacman and “Wasp” Puello, obtaining very positive results, crowning them champions as well as Adames and Héctor García.
“I am very grateful to the Dominican government and its authorities such as the Minister of Sports Francisco Camacho, who have adopted our MiniPacman as a role model for the country’s young athletes”, said Shuan Boxing´s president, Belgica Peña. “They have reiterated to us their decision to make their best effort to have that next championship fight in Dominican territory”, Peña added.
Erick Rosa will return to Las Vegas in a few days to continue training with Cuban Ismael Salas (who also trains Puello and Adames) and trusts that his fight would be held in Santo Domingo by late August or early September.
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