Pinoy pugs hurdle rivals in AIBA pro boxing meet

MANILA, Philippines - ABAP mainstays Charly Suarez and Mark Anthony Barriga hammered out contrasting victories over fancied rivals in separate venues in the inaugural staging of the AIBA Professional Boxing Tournament recently.

Launched early this year, the APB complements AIBA’s long-running amateur program and the more recent World Series of Boxing, which guarantees top-ranked national boxers at least four fights a year. Eight boxers are entered per division and will go through an elimination process via six rounds, an eight-rounder and a championship bout over 10 rounds.

Suarez knocked down two-time Olympian and ex-European and world champion Domenico Valentino of Italy in the fifth round and went on to score a split decision win in their 60kg lightweight fight at the Daulet Stadium in Astana, Kazakhstan.

London Olympian Barriga, on the other hand, dominated Argentina’s Leandro Blanc in their 49kg light flyweight fight in Guangzhou, China.

Suarez, an Asian Games silver medalist in Incheon, faces Kazakhstan’s Berik Abdrakhmanov next on Nov. 21, while Barriga will slug it out with Ecuador’s Carlo Quipo.

“We are elated at the auspicious start of Charly and Mark in the APB,” said ABAP president Ricky Vargas. “Their hard work and sacrifice are paying off. With help from the POC and the PSC, our athletes are reaching greater heights.”

Meantime, five ABAP officials hurdled upgrading examinations in different fields.

ABAP’s Dr. Isagani Leal qualified as a      certified WSB and AOB ringside physician in Assisi, Italy last September.

Also making the grade are one-star international referee-judges Mark Abalos and Cildo Evasco, who were upgraded to 3-star international rank after passing the exams in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Philippine team head coach Pat Gaspi, who passed the accreditation course for 3-star WSB and ABP coaches in Kazakhstan after earning his 3-star rank in the AOB in Aman, Jordan earlier, and AIBA international technical official (ITO) Karina Picson, who passed the exams for tournament supervisor for all three AIBA competitions in Almaty, becoming the first Asian female boxing official to do so.

Vargas said this underscores ABAP’s active involvement and cooperation with AIBA in ensuring that competent groups of officials man boxing competitions, stressing ABAP’s “firm stand behind the efforts of AIBA president Dr. Ching-Kuo Woo towards this end.”