Jerusalem: No excuses

Alta Sports3 hours ago · 31 views

Photo: Melvin Oliva Jerusalemm/Facebook

By Shawn De Guzman

Melvin Jerusalem offered no excuses after yielding the World Boxing Council (WBC) world minimumweight belt following his shock upset loss to Siyakholwa Kuse over the weekend.

The 32-year-old two-time world champion thanked his supporters and fans who stayed up late to watch his fight in the wee hours of Sunday while also admitting that he simply lost the bout.

“We did everything we could. No excuses,” said Jerusalem in a Facebook live hours after absorbing the unanimous decision defeat.

“Thank you for all your support, to my loyal supporters, win or lose. I really don’t want to lose. But it is what it is. Congratulations to Kuse, today is his day,” he added.

Jerusalem, however, opened up about the struggle of fighting with a bloody face, noting that it was his first time to get an open wound due to headbutt.

The pride of Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, sustained a nasty cut just above his right eye — an injury that certainly bothered him all throughout the contest.

“It was the first time that I had a clash of heads. Not even once, but thrice during the fight. But it’s fine that was the challenge for me. At least we still survived the 12 rounds,” he said.

Jerusalem added that he tried to rally back into the contest and while he scored a knockdown to Kuse, the lead of the South African was just simply too much to overcome at that point.

“It’s not our day. But we’ll bounce back. We’ll just take a rest and then plan if we can get a rematch.”