ABAP INTENSIFIES CHASE FOR ELUSIVE GOLD
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 22 Sep 2010
The hunt for the elusive Olympic gold medal rests heavily on boxing, the chief source of medals in the past Olympic Games. So far, boxing is the most productive sport in the Olympics for the Philippines, having garnered two silver medals, courtesy of Mansueto ?Onyok? Velasco and Anthony Villanueva, and three bronze medals through the efforts of Roel Velasco, Jose Villanueva and Leopoldo Serrantes.
Boxing, like basketball, is the passion of the nation. But for years the achievements in the amateur ranks nosedived unlike their professional counterparts who surged internationally with the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, Brian Viloria, and Donnie Nietes. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Harry Tanamor was the only Filipino boxer who qualified and was easily eliminated in the preliminaries.
Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP), under the new leadership of chairman Manny Pangilinan and president Ricky Vargas, recruited Filipino boxers from other countries to train and fight in the higher weight categories. Filipino-American Julian Santos Chua, who had a 9-0 amateur record, was taken by the ABAP national team. ?The ultimate goal is the Olympic gold,? said ABAP Executive Director Ed Picson. ?The only thing we can promise is that we?ll work real hard.?
Chua, a 19-year-old native of Lafayette, Indiana and winner of the Indiana State Golden Glove Award, trains with the Wild Card Boxing Club under the legendary trainer Freddie Roach. If he has to train in Manila he could not find a right sparring partner for him of the same size and of equal competence.
He sparred with light middleweight fighter Michael Medina who also helped train Pacquiao for the upcoming fight with Antonio Margarito. Roach commented that his manager Hermie Rivera had struck gold with his prot?g?. Rivera had managed two world champions, Pacquiao and Luisito Espinosa.
The Fil-Am boxer is working hard to deliver the first Olympic gold medal for the Philippines. According to Picson they could easily work on his dual citizenship for him to qualify in the Olympic qualifying and ultimately in the 2012 London Olympics as a Filipino boxer.
The ABAP Olympic gold track headed to the right direction when seven boxers, including one woman fighter, won honors in the Blue and Gold amateur boxing tournament in Maywood, California, one of the largest amateur tournaments in the US, participated in by 220 boxers.
Charley Suarez, brothers Victorio and Ray Saludar, Delfin Boholst and Josie Gabuco emerged as champions. Ricky Dulay and Gerson Nietes finished second place. The Philippine team arrived in the US early and trained under Donaire. They fought opponents mostly from Maywood, where boxing is considered an obsession. They also competed successfully at a mini-boxing competition at the University of San Francisco before joining the Blue & Gold tournament.
ABAP is presently organizing tournaments in Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and the NCR to penetrate to the grassroots. The national amateur boxing championships will be an ultimate national competition to discover fresh talents from the provinces to fill up the ABAP pool of boxers.
The first acid test of the new ABAP will be the coming Asian Games. If our national boxers will strike gold in Guangzhou, China then the 2012 victory will not be a far-fetched dream.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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