Tipon stings like a bee, sets up duel with Thai

BANGKOK – Bantamweight Joan Tipon toyed with an inexperienced Mukamamad Ali of Pakistan, firing away shots to the head and body and essaying an RSC-O (Referee Stopped Contest-Outscored) victory to advance to the semifinal round of the first AIBA Asian Boxing Olympic Qualifying tournament here Monday.

Tipon, 25, hardly worked out a sweat in fashioning out the abbreviated win in 1:30 of the third round in a 21-1 victory that kept his bid for an Olympic berth alive after four of his teammates fell one after the other in what could be a disastrous  stint by the RP Smart-PLDT boxing team in the first of two Asian Olympic elims.

“If he keeps his form, he can make it to Beijing,” said coach Pat Gaspi.

One win separates Tipon from achieving a dream stint in the Olympics but standing in the way of the Talisay City native is perhaps the most dreaded fighter in the 54-kg division.

Thai ace Worapoj Petchkoom, a silver medalist in the Athens Olympics, pounded out a 22-10 victory over a tough Homuratov Ulugbek of Uzbekistan earlier to reach the semis before a boisterous crowd at the Dhurakij Punjit University.

The two rivals will thus meet for the third time in the last three years but this one, slated Friday, should rank the most in terms of significance and weight with no less than an Olympic slot at stake.

Tipon nipped Petchkoom in a thrilling semifinal encounter in the Asian Games in Doha in 2006 that ended in a 13-all tie with the lanky Filipino clinching the all-important win in a tiebreak.

He went on to beat Korean Han Soon Chul to capture the gold medal, the country’s second in the sport after Violito Payla’s triumph in the flyweight division.

But Petchkoom got back at Tipon in last year’s World Championships in Chicago, also an Olympic qualifier, with the Thai fighter pulling off a 13-5 decision but losing his Olympic bid with a setback in the second round.

“We just hope Tipon will reach peak form by Friday,” said Gaspi.

The way he frolicked over Ali, Tipon should be on top of his game by Friday.

Tipon, who clobbered Jordan’s Ebraheem Algharageer, 13-2, to advance to the quarters Saturday, stamped his class over Ali right in the opening bell, flicking away hooks and straights against the Pakistani, who was helpless against the Filipino’s aggressive fighting style.

Tipon, connecting on 1-2 combinations and moving from side-to-side to elude his rival’s punches, took a 9-0 lead in the first round, piled up seven more points in the second while yielding a hit when Ali connected on a combination in a brief exchange in the middle.

But by the time the fight reached the third round, it was clear that Tipon would only need a little more time – and some punches – to dispose of the badly outclassed Pakistani

“I’m okay,” said the soft-spoken Tipon, the last man standing in a five-man team that came here with so much hope but could end up in despair following a string of losses by Payla, featherweight Orlando Tacuyan Jr., lightweight Genebert Basadre and lightwelter Adam Fiel.

Only the finalists in nine divisions plus the gold medalist in the heavyweight class will clinch berths in the Beijing Olympics.

The Philippines, with one boxing entry in the Olympics in lightfly Harry Tañamor, will try for the last time in April when the second and last Asian Qualifying is held in Kazakhstan.