WBC founding secretary general Rudy Salud, the eminent lawyer who at one time also headed the organizations ratings committee says Brian Viloria must be named flyweight champion after Mexican Omar Nino was tested and found positive for a banned substance following his title defense against Viloria last November 18.
In an interview with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today, Salud stressed that unless there has been a change in the rules, WBC president Jose Sulaiman must follow a sound precedent established in the case of Filipino world flyweight champion Erbito Salavarria’s title defense against Venezuela’s Betulio Gonzales in Maracaibo, Venezuela on November 20, 1971 . Salavarria retained the title as the fight ended in a split draw but the decision was subsequently overturned because the post-fight tests claimed honey mixed with water was found to have been used by Salavarria and Gonzales was declared champion.
Salud recalled that at that fight the president and official supervisor of the fight was Sulaiman himself. He said the rule allowed a fighter to only take “pure water” and that adding honey was “technically an enhancement” which allegedly gave Salavarria an undue advantage. Based on this Salud said “there is no other way but to give Viloria the title.”
Salud said that in his own assessment the best decision would be to get Viloria to fight for the title against the top contender but that “in the case of Viloria and Nino I don’t know of any specific governing rule but there is this jurisprudence which takes the place of a rule unless otherwise governed by regulations passed by the WBC.”
The lawyer-sportsman also recommended that the WBC give Viloria “ must be given an immediate directive to have a mandatory defense within a short time or 90 days at the most.”
WBC executive secretary Mauricio Sulaiman informed Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today that the WBC has appointed Dr. Paul Wallace who is head of its Medical Committee “to research and get the complete picture from the Commission (Nevada State Athletic Commission) and the lab.” Sulaiman said that “once the WBC has all the information the official position will be released.”
