Basadre in rousing win for Team RP

MILAN – Lightwelterweight Genebert Basadre got the five-man Philippine team off to a rousing start Tuesday by scoring a decisive 5-1 win over Pakistan’s Aamir Khan in the preliminaries of the 15th World Boxing Championships at the Mediolanum Forum here.

Basadre, 25, had little difficulty repulsing his aggressive opponent who repeatedly attacked but couldn’t find the range. National coach Pat Gaspi said Basadre fought a “tactical” fight, using defense and footwork to counterpunch his way to a lopsided victory.

Pakistan used to be a scary contender in previous World Championships because of former AIBA president Anwar Chowdry’s long dictatorial reign. But since Chowdry’s removal by Taiwan’s Dr. Ching Kuo Wu in the 2007 AIBA elections, competition on the global stage has been fair on the whole.

Khan had no political clout to lean on in trying to beat Basadre. The lanky Filipino, a 2005 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist as a lightweight, surged on top, 3-1, entering the third and final round to advance against Brazil’s Myke Carvaho tomorrow.

“It wasn’t a hard fight but since I had never seen Khan before, I was cautious at the start,” said Basadre in Filipino. “I knew I had a big lead going into the last round so I just stayed away until the last bell.”

Basadre, however, managed to score two more points while blanking Khan in the final canto.

ABAP executive director Ed Picson said Basadre was clearly the more intelligent fighter. “Genebert was a little taller than Khan,” said Picson. “But height didn’t make the difference. He was more accurate. He used his intelligence to win easily.”

Gaspi said he noticed the judges ignored Basadre’s hooks and cross – which was why he instructed the Cagayan de Oro contender to rake Khan with clear straights.

“I told Genebert to just keep throwing combinations – the jab-straight, that’s what the judges were looking for,” said Gaspi.

Basadre’s next opponent Carvaho isn’t an unknown commodity. Gaspi said Carvaho was on the Brazilian team that trained in Havana when the Filipinos were in the Cuban capital last month.

“Carvaho’s a slick boxer,” said Gaspi. “He’ll be a more difficult opponent than Khan. He’s taller than Genebert. But I’m confident if we stick to our fight plan, we can do it.”

Six wins will assure a fighter of the gold medal – five if he has a bye in the first round of preliminaries.

At presstime, bantamweight Joan Tipon was set to face Sri Lanka’s Gamaethiralalage Kamal while lightweight Joegin Ladon was to battle Thomas Stalker of England.

Lightflyweight bet Harry Tañamor, who has collected three of the country’s four World Championship medals in history, drew a bye in the first round of preliminaries and will make his debut against Armenia’s Danielyan Houhannes on Saturday.

Featherweight Charly Suarez will see action against Romania’s Stan Julian today.

ABAP president Ricky Vargas flew in from Manila to join the delegation last Monday while ABAP secretary-general Patrick Gregorio arrived the next day.