ABAP PRESIDENT VARGAS SAYS IF PACQUIAO CAN FIGHT IN RIO OLYMPICS IT WILL BE FANTASTIC
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 12 Apr 2016
The president of ABAP, the Alliance of Boxing Associations in the Philippines Ricky Vargas told The Standard that if eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao decides to represent the Philippines in the Olympic Games in Rio this August "it will be fantastic."
Vargas said that winning a g old medal with the present crop of qualifiers "is going to be very tough" but if Manny competes and wins the country's first Olympic gold medal "thats better than a belt because after the fight the Philippine flag will fly high above all and the national anthem will be played."
However, the ABAP president said that he "doesn't want to meddle with it" (in reference to the strong objections of the various
professional boxing organizations led by the World Boxing Council) but emphasized "we are after a gold medal. Pacquiao must want to do it. We are not forcing him but if he does decide that would be fantastic."
AIBA president Dr. Ching Ku-Wu had previously invited Pacquiao to compete and committed that he would not have to go through the preliminary rounds but would be automatically seeded into the championship phase of the tournament with Pacquiao responding positively saying "if it's for the country, why not."
Vargas also revealed that ABAP "was talking to the father of Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire, "Dodong" Donaire to train the Filipino Olympic boxers" and that he was "very open to it" but that ABAP would need the support of the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission because it's not free."
He said they need "Dodong" Donaire who is currently training his son for his WBO super bantamweight title defense against former Hungarian Olympian Zsolt Bedak at the Cebu Sports Center on April 23.
Vargas stressed "we want him. If he can help with our boxers, we need him to stay with our boxers for a month and that will be our best chance" in the quest to win Olympic medals.
The ABAP president said they would like to have "exclusive one-on-one training to be able to home the skills of our Olympic boxers" two of whom have qualified so far - lightweight Charly Suarez and light flyweight Rogen Ladon with Vargas hoping to have a minimum of four boxers qualify for Rio with two more to emerge from the remaining two qualifying tournaments in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
Photo: Manny Pacquiao brings the Philippine flag during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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