Gorres eager to come home

Z "The Dream" Gorres during a check-up

Z “The Dream” Gorres says he is eager to return home to Cebu to see his four young children and cannot wait to get on a homeward bound Philippine Airlines flight along with his wife Datches and Dr. Ben Calderon who has helped look after him and been a tower of strength since his tragic accident in the ring last November 13.

A group of law students along with their professor from the University of Las Vegas Nevada called on Gorres at the clinic of Dr. Calderon this afternoon to inform him that they were drafting a bill that would law hopefully be passed into law by the Nevada State Legislature.

A prime mover behind this effort which will be named the Z Gorres Bill is Frank Slaughter, boxing coach at UNLV and himself a former amateur boxer from the US Air Force.

The aim of the legislation is to provide adequate financial coverage for boxers who suffer similar injuries to that of Gorres so that taxpayers in the state won’t be burdened by having to effectively pay the cost of treatment of indigent boxers who are hospitalized.

In an interview with Bev Llorente of ABS-CBN who was commended by Dr. Calderon for her consistent reportage on the fate of Z Gorres and the commendable efforts by the Filipino doctors, nurses and others to help Gorres recover in every way possible, UNLV professor Robert Correales said they were hoping that if the bill is passed and “drafted in a way that is attractive to other jurisdictions that it will be passed in other states and maybe in other countries.”

The law professor pointed out that over the past couple of months because of the injury suffered by Gorres which needed brain surgery at the University Medical Center and subsequent therapy which will be continued when Gorres returns to the Philippines “the concern over the lack of a safety net for the fighters and the burden to taxpayers who have to step in and take care of injured indigents, what we want to do is place the responsibility in the hands of people that are benefiting the most from the activities of the boxers.”

Female law student Jayme Martinez said there was legislation in place years ago that provided $50,000 insurance for a fighter but emphasized that such an amount won’t go very far these days. She said “we are just asking for an increase in order to make the coverage good enough.”

The group realized that small promoters won’t be able to carry any additional financial burden and Slaughter said “all these promoters will be coming in on a sliding scale – the more you make the more you pay.”

Source: Ronnie Nathanielsz  | PhilBoxing