Thai rival blocks Suarez' path to gold

MANILA, Philippines - Only featherweight Charly Suarez will face a Thai opponent as three other Filipino fighters slug it out in the semifinals of men’s boxing at the 25th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Laos this afternoon.

Among the six Filipinos in the competition, the lone casualty so far is bantamweight Joan Tipon who lost a 9-4 decision to Thailand’s Chatchai Butdee last Friday. It was Tipon’s misfortune to cross paths early with Butdee who reached the quarterfinals at the World Championships in Milan last September. Butdee, voted the best boxer in the Bangkok Kings Cup last April, won three bouts before bowing to eventual silver medalist Eduard Abzalimov of Russia on an 11-6 verdict in the Milan quarters.

Lightflyweight Harry Tañamor is safely in the finals after subduing Myanmar’s Htet Aung, 12-4, last Sunday. He battles Thailand’s Kaew Pongprayoon for the gold medal in the 48-kilogram division on Thursday.

Suarez, 21, will be severely tested against Thailand’s Wuttichai Masuk in the semis. But if he hurdles Masuk, it will likely be home free for the hard-hitting Davao scrapper who knocked out Timor Leste’s Manuel Batisia with a right hook in a single round in his Laos debut last Friday. Batisia was so badly shaken up that he couldn’t get up for almost a minute.

A win over Masuk will advance Suarez to Thursday’s finals against the winner of the Urias Arenaldo-Phal Sophat bout in the other semis pairing. Arenaldo is from Indonesia and drew a bye to make it to the semis outright. Sophat, a Cambodian, outpointed Malaysia’s Eddey Kalai, 14-7, to book the appointment with Arenaldo.

Masuk, 19, defeated Singapore’s Ridhwan Ahmad, 16-4, in his first outing.

Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines executive director Ed Picson earlier singled out Suarez and flyweight Rey Saludar as the country’s darkhorse hopes in the medal race with Tañamor, a two-time Olympian, the logical favorite because of his experience.

Suarez scored the Philippines’ most impressive win at the recent World Championships, pounding out a convincing 18-8 decision over Romania’s Julian Stan in the round-of-64 before crashing out in his next fight, losing an 11-5 verdict to South Korea’s Joee Min Jae.

The other Filipino semifinalists are pinweight Bill Vicera, Saludar and lightwelterweight Joegin Ladon.

Vicera, 27, takes on Cambodia’s Ven Diaman while Saludar, 22, faces hometowner Xayyaphone Chanthasone. Ladon, 28, meets Laos’ Vilasak Khouandy.

Vicera and Ladon are the only holdovers from the Philippine boxing team that competed at the last SEA Games two years ago. Vicera took the pinweight bronze and Ladon, the lightweight silver.

Vicera started his Laos campaign with a 7-5 decision over Malaysia’s Muhamad Fuad. Diaman, 26, drew a bye in the round-of-eight. Saludar, Chanthasone, Ladon and Vilasak made it to the semifinals outright because of the dearth of entries.

Chanthasone, 26, claimed the bronze medal at the 2005 SEA Games and captured the gold medal at the Lao National Games last year. Vilasak, 31, also captured a gold medal in last year’s Lao National Games. How Saludar and Ladon will cope against home cooking remains to be a seen.