By REY DANSECO
RESPECTED Filipino trainer Lando Espinosa, younger brother of former WBA bantam and WBC featherweight champion Luisito Espinosa, was found dead while working with his boxer early Saturday morning in Manila, Philippines.
Security personnel of the National Center for Mental Health and some bystanders at the Welfareville compound in Manila’s eastern suburb Mandaluyong City found Espinosa, 41, lying on the ground while blooded from a cut in left eyebrow around 6:30 in the morning.
Espinosa was brought to the hospital but was declared dead on arrival. The body was sent to Philippine National Police’s Camp Crame in nearby Quezon City for autopsy and to find out if he was murdered.
Tex Gonzaga, Espinosa’s fellow trainer at the Tiger City Gym of well-known manager-promoter Jay San Pedro in Mandaluyong City, believed there was no foul play. San Pedro is on vacation in Toronto, Canada where his wife works.
“We don’t think he has enemy and besides everybody knows Lando (Espinosa) in Welfareville because our boxers do the early morning road works there,” said Gonzaga. “Somebody told us that Lando felt dizzy and went down unconscious. His head might hit the pavement so hard that’s why he got the nasty cut like a cut from headbutt.”
Gonzaga revealed that Espinosa might lack of sleep.
“We’ve been in a boxing show in Caloocan (City) last (Friday) night and we went home around 12 midnight,” said Gonzaga. “Lando woke up early this morning to supervise Sonny Gonzales in his road work at Welfareville.”
Gonzales, who became Philippines Boxing Federation (PBF) super bantamweight champ under Espinosa’s watchful eyes, is preparing for his scheduled bout on March 2 in Digos City in southern Philippines.
“After a round of jogging within the area, Gonzales was looking for Lando. He thought his trainer had already left him, so he went to the gym and there, he learned what happened,” said Narvaez.
Espinosa’s wife Mariebeth and their two children, who live in Cagayan de Oro City in southern Philippines were told about the bad news as well as the other members of the Espinosa clan, except the former two-time world champion Luisito who is living on his own in California since retiring from fighting in 2005.
His remains lie in state at Liberty in the new cemetery in P. Guevarra, Mandaluyong City.
Lando Espinosa and Freddie Roach in Manila.
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June 7th, 2010 at 8:24 am