Missing lightflyweight boxing

TOKYO – Of the Philippines’ collection of 11 Olympic medals since 1924, five came from boxing and three were in the lightflyweight division. The other two were in the bantamweight and featherweight classes. The boxing medalists were bantamweight Jose Villanueva (bronze, 1932), featherweight Anthony Villanueva (silver, 1964) and lightflyweights Leopoldo Serrantes (bronze, 1988), Roel Velasco (bronze, 1992) and Onyok Velasco (silver, 1996). Jose was Anthony’s father and the Velascos are brothers so there’s affinity among four of the five boxers.

In this year’s Games, the Philippines’ favorite lightflyweight division in men’s boxing has vanished. A major adjustment was made in the weight classes of both men and women from Rio de Janeiro to Tokyo. In 2016, there were 10 weight categories for men and three for women or a total of 13 gold medals at stake. In Tokyo, the men’s divisions were reduced to eight while the women’s classes moved up to five. It was in the spirit of narrowing the gap to promote gender equality that the change was made even as the total of 13 gold medals remained intact.

Gone are the lightflyweight (49 kilograms), bantamweight (56 kilograms) and lightwelterweight (64 kilograms) divisions for men. Brought back to this year’s program was featherweight (57 kilograms) with lightweight adjusted from 60 kilograms to 63. The rest of the classes stayed the same – flyweight (52), welterweight (69), middleweight (75), lightheavyweight (81), heavyweight (91) and superheavyweight (+91). The women’s classes of flyweight (51), lightweight (60) and middleweight (75) were retained but added to the mix were featherweight (57) and welterweight (69). The men’s featherweight division disappeared when women entered the boxing competition in 2012. From 11 total medals at stake, all for men, the loot went up to 13 with three women’s classes in London.

Accusations of corruption and manipulation of results to favor certain countries against the leadership of AIBA in previous Olympics prompted IOC president Thomas Bach to form a Task Force to supervise boxing here instead of the discredited international federation. The Task Force head is Japanese Morinari Watanabe, also president of the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique. AIBA’s president is Russian Umar Nazarovich Kremlev who took over from Uzbek Gafur Rakhimov last year. Under Kremlev’s leadership, cash prizes were promised for medalists in AIBA-sanctioned competitions. But at the Asian Championships in Dubai last May, Eumir Marcial and three other Philippine fighters never received their $1,000 reward for bagging a bronze apiece. In October, AIBA will stage the World Championships in Belgrade with a $100,000 prize for a gold. Kremlev hopes to consolidate his foothold in AIBA by luring boxers with cash prizes but without IOC support, the federation faces an uncertain future. Watanabe said if dubious outcomes persist, boxing will be eliminated from the Olympic calendar for good.