SPORTS SHORTS 178: ABAP SAYS ALL FOUR BOXERS ARE CAPABLE OF WINNING OLYMPIC GOLD
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 24 Jul 2021
Four Philippine boxers qualified for the Tokyo Olympics led by middleweight fighter Eumir Marcial have a big chance to win the Philippines' evasive first gold medal according to Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) secretary-general Ed Picson.
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Other Tokyo campaigners are women’s featherweight boxer Nesthy Petecio, flyweight fighter Carlo Paalam and women’s flyweight pugilist Irish Magno.
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ABAP previously targeted to enter six Filipino boxers to the Tokyo Olympics. But only four were able to make it due to the cancellation of the Olympic Qualifiers caused by the rising pandemic cases.
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“I think coach Don (Abnett) will attest to this that we actually expected more, maybe one or two more but the world qualifying tournament was canceled and they had to go to the rankings,” said Picson in SportsIQ.
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“We’re happy with the four that we have. I think this is a very formidable lineup. All of them are very capable of winning a gold medal.”
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Magno and Marcial earned Tokyo slots through the Asia Oceania Boxing Olympic Qualification tournament in Amman, Jordan last year while Petecio and Paalam qualified by virtue of their rankings in Asia. The team is just one boxer fewer than the delegation to Tokyo Olympics in 1964, the first summer Games in Japan.
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The Philippine boxing team trained abroad with Marcial undergoing rigorous preparations at the Wild Card Boxing Club in the US while Petecio, Magno and Paalam honed up their skills in Thailand.
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“We’re very fortunate. Not all NSA’s have the benefit of a private benefactor and one as generous and as concerned about our sport and our athlete as the MVP Sports Foundation,” Picson said.
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“It helps a lot that Mr. Pangilinan is a sports fan. We all know that he likes to watch sports activities and he actually went into this advocacy of helping out sports because of his love for sports. It is a genuine advocacy.”
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Eumir Marcial, 25, of Zamboanga City, will fight on Monday, July 28. After his failure in the 2016 Rio Olympic qualifiers, Marcial recovered and grabbed a silver medal in the 2019 world championships, a gold medal in the 2019 SEA Games, and a gold medal in the Tokyo 2020 Asia and Oceania Olympic qualifiers.
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Marcial decided to turn pro at the height of the pandemic, but he assured the Philippines he would still represent the country's tricolors. He looks forward to displaying his world-class training under Freddie Roach and ABAP coaches in his Los Angeles and Colorado training camps as he aspires for the nation's boxing prestige.
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Nesthy Petecio will fight on Saturday, July 26. Petecio had suffered heartbreaking losses, including a controversial defeat in the 2018 Asian Games. At first, she failed to earn an Olympic berth in the Asia and Oceania qualifiers. And now she is given a chance to compete in the Olympics and hopes to carry out her mission successfully.
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In 2019, Petecio, 29, of Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur, won a gold medal at the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships. It ended the country’s seven-year gold medal drought since Josie Gabuco bagged the gold in the light flyweight event. Petecio also won a 2019 SEA Games gold medal.
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Irish Magno, 29, of Janiuay, Iloilo will fight on Sunday, July 25. She was the historic first Filipina boxer to earn a slot at the Olympics. She made it after winning the box-off for one of six Olympic slots in the women’s flyweight event in the Asia and Oceania qualifiers.
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Magno won medals the SEA Games, a bantamweight bronze medal in 2013 and flyweight silver medals in 2015 and 2019.
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Carlo Paalam, 22, of Bukidnon, qualified for Tokyo due to his world rankings in the flyweight division after the AIBA Boxing Olympic Qualifying Tournament was canceled due to the pandemic. He won a 2018 Asian Games bronze, and subsequently a gold in the 2019 SEA Games in front of the home fans in Manila.
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Nesthy Petecio will face Marcelat Sakobi Matshu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the very first boxing match of the Tokyo Games today.
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“I am more than ready,” said Petecio, the women’s featherweight gold medalist at the world championships in Ulan-Ude, Russia in 2019.
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Four years younger at 25 and less experienced than the Petecio, Matshu only finished 17th in the same Ulan-Ude, Russia world championships won by the Davao bet. Matshu is considered not much of a threat but Petecio is not complacent and does not take her opponent lightly.
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“Our coaches have reviewed videos of my opponent and they have prepared a strategy for me,” Petecio said. “I’ll only need to follow instructions when I climb the ring.”
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The boxing draw was done for the Team Philippines, and the boxing contests set at the Kokugikan Arena include women’s flyweight Irish Magno, who fights Kenya’s Christine Ongare on Sunday, followed by Carlo Paalam’s men’s flyweight bout against Ireland’s Brendan Irvine on Monday.
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Eumir Felix Marcial drew a first-round bye and will only fight in the men’s middleweight round-of-16 on July 29 against the winner of the preliminary match of Algeria’s Younes Nemouchi and Uganda’s Ssemujju.
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Our four boxers are all ready to climb back to the ring after a year of postponement of the Olympics and they are ready to end the Philippines’ 25-year Olympic drought in Tokyo.
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The last Olympic boxing medal was won at Atlanta 1996 when Mansueto Velasco grabbed a silver medal in the light-flyweight category.
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The Philippines have won five medals in boxing: 2 silvers (Atlanta 1996, Tokyo 1964) and 3 bronze (1932 Los Angeles, Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992.
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After postponement and several controversies, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are finally going. The opening ceremonies took place on Friday at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. The Games will be played from July 23 through August 8.
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The opening ceremonies were different with fans not being allowed to attend physically the Summer Games. Audiences are not allowed to attend any of the events throughout the Olympics due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in Japan.
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The opening ceremony climaxed with the celebrated tradition of lighting the Olympic flame at Olympic Stadium. Tennis star Naomi Osaka, who was born in Japan and is competing for her home country at the Games, did the honor of lighting the cauldron with the Olympic flame, which officially started the Tokyo Olympics.
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Osaka has been ranked No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and is the first Asian player in tennis history to grab the top ranking in singles. Born in Japan to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother, Osaka has lived and trained in the United States since age three years.
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Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam singles champion, and is the reigning champion at the US Open and the Australian Open. Her seven titles on the WTA Tour also include two at the Premier Mandatory level.
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At the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open, Osaka won her first two Grand Slam singles titles in back-to-back Grand Slam tournaments, the first player to achieve it since Jennifer Capriati in 2001. She also was the first woman to win straight Grand Slam singles titles since Serena Williams in 2015.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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