Olympian Harry Tañamor went the route fellow national team mainstay and Asian Games gold medalist Joan Tipon took the other day, bowing to Albert Pabila of the Philippine Navy in the 2007 Smart National Boxing Open Championships in Cagayan de Oro City Tuesday.
Pabila pulled off a close 3-2 win over Tañamor, who saw action in the Athens 2004 Olympics, in their light flyweight bout for the lone upset posted in a day when the fancied bets dominated the action at the Misamis Oriental provincial capitol.
“I’m happy with the victory because it would further boost my confidence,” said Pabila, who dropped his previous three matches to Tañamor, in Filipino.
Tañamor, who with Tipon heads the seven-man RP team that will seek Olympic berths in the World Championships in Chicago on Oct. 18, took the loss in stride.
“We lost because we haven’t recovered from a tournament in Czech Republic,” said Tañamor, back-to-back gold medalist in the 2003 and 2004 Southeast Asian Games.
Tañamor thus became the second favorite to fall by the wayside after Tipon lost to Orlando Tacuyan Monday.
Save for Tañamor, the rest of the favorites stamped their class over their respective rivals with Philippine Army’s bantamweight Godfrey Castro, lightweight Genebert Basadre, and Philippine Navy’s Joegen Ladon posting convincing wins.
Castro, seeking his third gold in this annual slugfest serving as performance test for future members of the national training pool, prevailed over Jay-R Quiam of Elorde Boxing team, 8-5, to advance to the semifinals.
Basadre won over Roberto Vito Del Rosario of Philippine Navy-Bago City-C via referee-stopped contest-Outclassed with 1:42 left in round one, while Ladon, silver medalist in the 2005 Manila SEA Games and Helsinki Invitational in Finland, outclassed local bet Listriano Tapccine of Misamis Oriental to reach the quarterfinal round.