by Ronnie Nathanielsz

 

The promoter of No.1 ranked WBC minimumweight contender Denver Cuello has offered to stage the final title eliminator against Saul “Baby” Juarez ordered by WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, in Manila.

 

Promoter Aljoe Jaro told the New Standard/BoxingScene.com that he offered Juarez a purse of US $10,000 plus three roundtrip plane tickets explaining that his purse offer was necessarily less than the $15,000 offer he made Raul “Rayito” Garcia who was a former champion and was  rated No. 2 while Juarez isn’t rated among the minimum weights.

Faced with the problem of “Rayito” Garcia’s decision to pull out of the final eliminator against Cuello because of Garcia’s inability to make the weight, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman decided to grant the request of Saul “Baby” Juarez to replace Garcia in a final title eliminator against southpaw Denver Cuello.

 

The winner will get a title shot at  29 year old Wanheng Menayothin  of Thailand who is undefeated with a record of 38-0 with 13 knockouts and is coming off a 9th   round knockout in his last title defense against Filipino Jerry Tomogdan on  February 5.

 

However, Aljoe Jaro informed us that the handlers of Juarez want to stage the fight in Mexico and he indicated Cuello was not afraid of fighting in Mexico provided he gets a good offer.

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The 28 year old Cuello has a record of 36-5-6 with 24 knockouts. He won the WBC Silver title with a stunning 1st   round knockout of Carlos Perez in Mexico on October 15, 2011 and successfully defended the title with a 2nd   round TKO over fancied Ganigan Lopez  on May 19, 2012.

 

Cuello’s only loss in the last five years was in a title fight against China’s Xiong Zhao Zhong in Dubai on June 28, 2013 when he suffered a torn rotator cuff early in the fight and fought the rest of the way with one hand but still managed to hold the champion to a majority decision win.

 

Cuello underwent surgery and returned to the ring after one year and four months of therapy and won three fights in a row, all by stoppage.

 

What probably made Sulaiman decide in favor of Juarez who is rated No. 12 light flyweight by the WBC was his back-to-back victories over former world flyweight champion Adrian “Confesor” Hernandez.

 

Juarez won by an 8th round TKO on May 30 this year and in an immediate, action-packed  rematch  won by a ten round split decision last August 8.

 

The fights against Hernandez came after Juarexz dropped a unanimous twelve round decision to Milan Melindo in an IBF title eliminator