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.