LIGHTWEIGHT Charly Suarez and light flyweight Rogen Ladon will train in the United States prior to the Olympic boxing competition in Rio de Janeiro from August 6 to 21, 2016 at the Pavilion 6 of Riocentro.
ABAP executive director Ed Picson, who was at the Baguio City training camp, told The Standard that all the boxers in the national pool, including Suarez and Ladon, who earned silver medals in the AIBA Asia-Oceania Olympic qualifying tournament, are in great shape.
He said Suarez and Ladon will leave, along with Dodong Donaire, the trainer/father of five-division world champion Nonito Donaire, on June 11.
The two will train in the Top Rank Gym in Los Angeles, which is open to the Filipino boxers anytime, according to Top Rank executive Lee Samuels.
“We are still waiting to hear from Manny Pacquiao,” said Picson of the eight-division world champion, on whether he had accepted the invitation of AIBA president Dr. Wu Ching-Kuo to compete in Rio since the AIBA has decided to allow pro boxers to fight in boxers to fight in the Olympics.
The deadline set for Pacquiao’s decision is Friday.
Dr. Wu earlier told Picson that Pacquiao must first make a decision before he can talk about assigning any of the five “wildcard” slots, one of which is for the light welterweight division, to Pacquiao.
The AIBA president indicated he was confident of getting approval for a change of the Statutes to allow professionals to compete in the Olympic Games beginning in Rio at a special congress being called on June 1, to be attended by ABAP president Ricky Vargas and Picson.
Should Pacquiao decide not to fight in the Olympics, Dennis Galvan is likely to be included, along with Ian Clark Bautista, Mario Fernandez and Eumir Marcial in the final Olympic qualifying tournament in Azerbaijan on June 19.
AIBA earlier launched a semi-pro league to give amateur male boxers an opportunity to potentially prepare for their future professional boxing careers.
Other changes cover the introduction of the World Series of Boxing and the AIBA Pro Boxing Tournament during the qualifying stage, the elimination of headgear due to higher concussion risk with headgear than without, and the instant 10-point pro-style scoring system to stimulate transparency and fair judgment throughout the tournament.