BARRIGA LOSES HEARTBREAKER; PROTEST THROWN OUT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 05 Aug 2012
The International Amateur Boxing Association ? AIBA- added insult to injury when it threw out the protest filed by the Philippines against the unwarranted deduction against Mark Anthony Barriga who lost a one point heartbreaker to his favored Kazakhstan rival Birzhan Zhakypov at the ExCel Arena on Thursday evening.
After dropping a close opening round by a point Barriga stormed back with a big second round to overcome the early deficit and grab a two point lead, 10-8, entering the third and final round.
The bout was marred by several fouls with Zakhypov wrestling Barriga to the canvas a number of times for which he received warnings from the Canadian referee Labie Rolando but no deductions. On the other hand Barriga was penalized four points for allegedly wrestling the Kazakh fighter and head-butting which ended with Zakhypov also being deducted two points with the second infraction simultaneously called against Barriga.
The two point penalty cost Barriga a 16-17 loss and the end of a gallant effort to try and duplicate at least the bronze medal achieved by his talented coach Roel Velasco at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines president Ricky Vargas, on instructions of ABAP chairman and esteemed businessman-sportsman Manny Pangilinan filed a protest immediately but it was thrown out.
AKTV IBC 13?s Lia Cruz told the Manila Standard that AIBA ?basically said our protest was baseless and our complaint was subjective.?
In a statement moments later ABAP president Vargas said ?Despite this painful experience we will persevere and work even harder to achieve our Olympic quest.?
Vargas said it was painful ?to witness Barriga, a young and promising boxer who worked so hard and fought with a big heart only to lose due to a controversial call by the referee which gave two bonus points to his much taller opponent.?
He added, ?we felt we owed it to Mark to place the fight under protest, to fight for him as he had fought for us. Unfortunately the competition Jury did not entertain it, not even reviewing the tape of the fight? which they had done in several previous instances and overturned decisions, fired and suspended referees.
Vargas claimed ?it seems in the battle of ?giants? justice is more difficult to attain for a small country like ours.?
He concluded, ?we may have lost a boxing match in London, but definitely NOT our Filipino pride.?
In its report on the fight AIBA did not even mention the fact that the Philippines had filed a protest. It said ?Diminutive Filipino Mark Barriga who was so exciting in his first bout (where he scored a rousing 17-7 victory over Manuel Cappai of Italy) started brightly, looking to connect with the uppercut and the big overhead. Zakhypov was using his big height and reach advantage to good effect as he constantly repelled the attacks from the teenager from the Philippines (Zhakypov is 28) to take the first round.?
In the second round AIBA reported that ?those exact shots were now piercing through the defenses of the Kazak with a crisp right uppercut the highlight of the round.?
AIBA continued, ?the Filipino southpaw came into the final round with a point advantage (which was incorrect since he had a 10-8 lead for a two point advantage) and continued to be bright, mixing up his shots and landing some good punches. But Zhakypov was strong, using his know-how to connect with some clean counter-punches. As the teenager tired with a couple of minutes to go, the Kazak pounced and threw a huge amount of connecting blows to overturn his deficit and record a hard-fought 17-16 victory.?
Atlanta Olympics silver medalist Mansuetio ?Onyok? Velasco who was on the TV studio panel was shocked by the point deductions against Barriga but also lamented the fact that Barriga lost wind in the final minutes of the third round which he said had always been the youngster?s problem.
He also pointed out that rather than be the aggressor Barriga often tended to be a counter-puncher and failed to sustain his attack after throwing a couple of punches although he still maintained that Barriga should have won a decision.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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