Pinoy pugs off to winning start

MANILA, Philippines — Reigning world women’s featherweight champion Nesthy Petecio and Ian Clark Bautista trounced their respective foes to advance to the next round of the Asia Oceania Continental Olympic boxing qualifier at the Prince Hamzah Hall in Amman, Jordan.

Petecio, also a gold-medal winner in the 30th Southeast Asian Games, overpowered Sri Lanka’s Krismi Lankapurayalage to win via unanimous decision while Bautista needed a final-round push to edge Japan’s Hayato Tsutsumi via split decision.

Gold medalist in the last World Championship, Petecio is a win away from claiming a berth to the Tokyo Games.

Bautista, a 25-year-old Navyman, split the first two rounds with the former World juniors champion before pouring out everything in the deciding round to eke out the close win with scores of 29-28, 28-29, 30-27, 28-29 and 29-28.

With the win, Bautista set up a second-round match with reigning Southeast Asian Games champion Chatchai-Deche Butdee – the third-seeded Thai fighter who drew a first-round bye.

Butdee defeated Bautista, the 2015 SEAG gold medalist, in the semifinals of the Manila SEAG and went all the way to rule their division.

“I’m happy with the win. Everything we’ve been training for I was able to show that in the ring,” Bautista told olympicchannel.com. “My coaches told me we needed to get the last round to win, and that gave me the will to win.”

National coach Ronald Chavez said the fighter out of Negros Occidental has a strong chance of avenging his loss to Butdee, a former Olympian.

“If he (Bautista) fights the way he did against the Japanese, he could very well exact revenge on Butdee,” said Chavez.

It was a strong start for the seven-strong Philippine team eyeing slots to the Tokyo Games in July.