Boxing manager Marco Luis has prioritised the well-being of his fighter, Beaven \u201cThe Flame of Zimbabwe\u201d Sibanda, above a lucrative payout.<\/p>\n
He turned down a proposed world title fight because Sibanda won\u2019t be 100% ready to fight on April 4.<\/p>\n
Sibanda was offered a fight in California on that date against IBF mini flyweight champ Pedro \u201cKid Heneral\u201d Taduran from the Philippines.<\/p>\n
But the boxer is undergoing rehabilitation from an operation after his Achilles tendon was injured during sparring in September.<\/p>\n
Said Luis: \u201cBeaven could have been 80% ready for the fight, and I could have convinced him to take the fight with the purse money on offer, which I believe was the highest in this weight division.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been beautiful for me as his manager to tell you that we are packing our bags and leaving for California. But, hey, my responsibility is not to look good in the eyes of the public but to look after my fighter.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me to throw him under the bus for money when he is not 100% ready is unacceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about my financial gains [managers earn 15% from a boxer\u2019s purse money] \u2014 this is about Beaven\u2019s career,\u201d said Luis of Maverick Boxing Management.<\/p>\n
He said Sibanda may have another chance at the world title in May.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeaven is No 1 on my agenda,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s only 24; we have communicated with the IBF that he\u2019s still on medical suspension. His ranking will be held by the IBF.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sibanda, who has nine wins, three knockouts and one loss on his record, is rated No 7 by the IBF, No 4 by the WBC and No 12 by the WBO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boxing manager Marco Luis has prioritised the well-being of his fighter, Beaven \u201cThe Flame of Zimbabwe\u201d Sibanda, above…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,94192,231735,16813,87392,231734,85,231736,156723],"class_list":["post-447132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-fight","tag-fitness-to-fight","tag-flyweight","tag-ibf","tag-marco-luis","tag-sports","tag-taduran","tag-unacceptable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}