Qian’An, Hebei Province, China – Veteran Charly Suarez scored the second Filipino victory Sunday afternoon and Nesthy Petecio followed suit late in the evening at the Asian-Oceanian Olympic Qualification event in this quiet city two and a half hours by land from the capital Beijing.
The muscular lightweight from Davao, who fights in all three programs of AIBA-the World Series of Boxing, the AIBA Pro Boxing and the AIBA Open Boxing, stamped his class on Chinese-Taipei’s national champion Lai Chu-En on Easter Sunday.
Suarez, seeded No. 2 in the lightweight category here, dazzled his opponent from the opening bell, prompting the Kazakh referee to give the Taiwanese lad a standing 8-count about a minute into the fight after getting rocked with a right hook to the head.
Then towards the end of that first round, the referee again gave Lai the 8-count as he absorbed a hard right uppercut to the breadbasket.
The judges from Russia, Cuba and Sri Lanka had the Filipino winning convincingly with identical cards of 30-26.
“Medyo bata pa at kulang sa experience. Pero hindi ako nag pabaya kasi mabilis at may power din, (He’s a bit young and inexperienced. But I didn’t lose my focus because he’s fast and has some power)” said Suarez of his 20-year-old foe who just a day before had upset a favored boxer from Turkmenistan.
Suarez now moves on to the quarterfinals against India’s Dheeeraj Tuesday.
Petecio, a silver medalist at the last AIBA World Women’s Championships in Korea, likewise dominated her Micronesian opponent, Jennifer Chieng, in four rounds, to take the decision, with the judges from Hungary scoring it 40-36, Great Britain 40-36, and Uzbekistan 40-35, all for the Filipina boxer.
“The tournament is just starting. You need either four or five wins here to qualify for the Olympics. But we’re off to a good start,” said delegation head and ABAP executive director Ed Picson.
Three more boxers will debut Monday. No. 1 seeds Rogen Ladon (light flyweight) and Eumir Felix Marcial (welterweight) face Japan’s Tosho Kashiwasaki and Kori Istafanos of Australia, respectively.
Bantamweight Mario Fernandez, who drew a bye in the first round, will go up versus Yakub Meredov of Turkmenistan while Roldan Boncales (who won Saturday) takes to the ring a second time to engage No. 4 seed Oizhas Sattibayev of Kazkhstan.
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