Mega to present crown to Chrisjon

Mega to present crown to Chrisjon

Suherjoko, The Jakarta Post, Semarang

President Megawati Sukarnoputri is expected to bestow the World
Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight belt on newly-crowned
Chrisjon of Indonesia.

Chrisjon, who has become only the third Indonesian world
champion after Ellyas Pical and Nico Thomas, said the Indonesian
Boxing Commission (KTI) had lobbied Megawati to present the belt.

"The request letter has been submitted to Ibu Megawati,"
Chrisjon told The Jakarta Post here on Friday.

Chrisjon, who won the interim title by beating Oscar Leon in
Denpasar, Bali, early October, was declared champion after
reigning champion Derrick Gainer of the United States failed in
his unification bout against IBF champion Juan Marquez on Nov. 1.

Chrisjon said that he had heard the news (of Gainer's defeat)
on Thursday from Torino Tidar, a WBA supervisor in Indonesia.

"Pak Torino told me about the crown. I'm happy I have become
world champion at last," he said.

He said that the crown should have been his soon right after
his triumph over Leon in Bali because Gainer appeared to have
refused fight under WBA.

"It was a waiting period for me, querying whether Gainer would
proceed in his plan for the unification bout with Marquez. He did
and lost and the crown automatically belongs to me," he said.

The 23-year-old from Banjarnegara regency in Central Java now
looks ahead to the future, saying that retaining the belt would
be harder than ever.

"I must prepare myself as early as possible. My contenders
will be those ranked between one and ten," he said.

Chrisjon, who trains under Sutan Rambing, said he would prefer
to have his mandatory fight in Indonesia.

"But if I have to go outside, I'm prepared for that," he said.

Nevertheless, Chrisjon has a tough task at hand as he prepares
for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam, this
time as a wushu athlete.