Suarez forced to drop to bantam

MANILA, Philippines -  One of the country’s brightest Olympic medal hopes Charly Suarez will now campaign as a bantamweight after the International Boxing Association (AIBA) scrapped the featherweight class in the men’s division.

How the drop in weight will affect Suarez’ chances to strike gold in the coming Asian Games remains to be seen but ABAP executive director Ed Picson said the other day elite coach Roel Velasco isn’t worried.

“Charly will adapt, no doubt about it,” said Picson. “It’s a slight adjustment but Charly’s young. He’s only 22. It might even be a blessing because now, he’ll be fighting lighter opponents using the same power against featherweights.”

AIBA struck out the featherweight category in its international program for men to accommodate three classes for women – flyweight (48-51 kilograms), lightweight (56-60) and middleweight (69-75). Left in the men’s division are lightflyweight (46-49), flyweight (49-52), bantamweight (52-56), lightweight (56-60), lightwelterweight ((60-64), welterweight (64-69), middleweight (69-75), lightheavyweight (75-81), heavyweight (81-91) and superheavyweight (+91).

Aside from eliminating the featherweight class, AIBA tweaked the weight limits in five categories. The previous limits were -48 kilograms for lightflyweight, 48-51 for flyweight, 51-54 for bantamweight, 54-57 for featherweight and 57-60 for lightweight. The new limits will be applied in the Guangzhou Asian Games this November.

Suarez is the only Filipino among 14 selected athletes from all over the globe to be recognized as a “sports scholar” by the UK-based G4S, the world’s largest security solutions group and security service provider with 585,000 employees. He is one of five fighters in ABAP’s elite pool with lightflyweights Mark Anthony Barriga and Victorio Saludar, flyweight Rey Saludar and women’s flyweight Annie Albania.

Picson said he expects the ABAP coaching staff, headed by Pat Gaspi, to pick five to six male fighters to join Albania in the national team competing in Guangzhou. Albania will be the only Filipina entry in the women’s division as there are no legitimate contenders in the lightweight and middleweight categories.

Picson listed the male contenders as follows: lightflyweight – Barriga, Victorio Saludar, Bill Vicera, Crisanto Godaren; flyweight – Gerson Nietes, Rey Saludar, Bonifacio Fernando; bantamweight – Suarez, Glicerio Catolico III, Ricky Dulay; lightweight – Joegen Ladon, Jamieboy Vicera; lightwelterweight – Orlando Tacuyan, Jimmy Ballares, Dennis Galvan; and welterweight – Delfin Boholst, Wilfredo Lopez.

“We’ve got 17 top contenders in the men’s pool with about 10 understudies,” said Picson. “In the women’s pool, we’ve got 14. We lost several fighters to the pros like Adonis Cabalquinto, Mark Johnrey Melligen, Francis Aston Palicte, Wibeth Loberamis and Genno Cabugngan but we’re bringing up more discoveries from our grassroots program to take over their slots.”

Picson also bared plans for ABAP to host one or two major international events next year after the successful staging of the MVP Cup recently. AIBA has offered Manila the chance to bid for the hosting rights of the women’s world youth championships in the 17-18 age group and the women’s world junior championships in the 15-16 age group. Another possibility is the Asian senior elite championships involving high-caliber Olympic and Asian Games fighters from about 30 countries.

“ABAP president Ricky Vargas and secretary-general Patrick Gregorio are seriously considering to propose to ABAP chairman Manny Pangilinan the hosting of one or two international competitions next year aside from the second MVP Cup after conferring with AIBA president Dr. Ching Kuo Wu,” said Picson. “We have received a favorable endorsement from Asian Boxing Confederation president Chang Jianping and executive director Richard Cheng to bid for more international events.”

Baku, Azerbaijan, won the hosting rights for the world championships, the first-level Olympic qualifying tournament, in 2011 with a bid of $2 million. The only Asian qualifying competition for the London Olympics will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, in early 2012 at a bid price of $200,000.