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Friday, March 29, 2024

AIBA tourney is good for boxers

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IN our country’s quest for a first Olympic gold medal in boxing which has, through the years been the most prolific for the Philippines with two silver medals and a fistful of bronzes, the ABAP or Alliance of Boxing Associations in the Philippines headed by its president Ricky Vargas, decided to allow two of our top prospects, London Olympian light flyweight Mark Anthony Barriga and lightweight Charly Suarez, who regrettably failed to qualify for the London games by the slimmest of margins, to sign up for the pro boxing tournament to be launched by the international governing body AIBA in March.

The Philippine Olympic Committee has questioned the decision, claiming that the absence of Barriga and Suarez in the Philippines Southeast Asian Games squad in Singapore this June would lessen our chances of accomplishing the goal of finishing fourth overall, believing that both boxers would win gold medals.

Chief of Mission to the Singapore Games Julian Camacho told the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum that the POC wants NSAs involved not to follow the example of the ABAP because “we need every medal that we can win.”

Camacho claimed that Barriga and Suarez “are sure gold medalists” and then took a swipe at both the ABAP and the two boxers saying, “this is for the country and country should come first.”

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There is absolutely no guarantee, despite Camacho’s seeming confidence, that Barriga and Suarez would win gold medals. All we have to do is to recall what happened to our fighters in the last Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea and previous SEA Games in Thailand for instance.

Besides, even if Barriga and Suarez compete in Singapore and win gold medals, surely that won’t make the difference in jumping to fourth place overall, which is the announced goal of our sports leaders as they try to recover from a disastrous seventh place finish in the last SEA Games in Myanmar.

What the POC and its allies in the National Sports Associations as well as the Philippine Sports Commission need to do is to ensure that other sports will deliver the  medals we need,  to help us attain a respectable fourth place finish in Singapore.

The other point we should remember is that we have a number of promising young boxers, who could surely fill up the spots left vacant by Barriga and Suarez and achieve success. Besides, when we concentrate on fielding the same boxers in such low-level tournaments as the SEA Games, which is not even recognized by AIBA as a worthy qualifying tournament, we are actually depriving other young fighters to compete and get the experience and exposure they need for future competitions.

The idea behind allowing Barriga and Suarez to sign up to compete in the AIBA pro tournament after they were picked by the international governing body since they were among the top eight in their respective weight divisions is that it would allow them to hone their skills by fighting the best in their divisions from other countries which is essential,  if boxers like Barriga and Suarez are going to have any chance to compete in the Olympics and win an elusive gold medal, which is the medium-term goal.

Indeed, by competing in the AIBA tournament, we understand Barriga and Suarez will have three chances to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, while fighters who are not chosen to compete in the AIBA pro tournament will get only one chance to qualify. This is a major come-on aside from the good money the two fighters can earn.

While it is true the PSC pays them a decent monthly allowance since they are considered elite athletes, Barriga and Suarez are essentially competing to enhance their skills and to move closer to earning a qualifying berth for the Olympics, which means they are still serving the country and any effort to quibble about the PSC payments or their failure to reciprocate by representing the Philippines in the SEA Games is terribly unfair.

Camacho’s reported statement “this is not just for the money and this is for the country and country should come first,” is a worn out claim. Indeed, if the country comes first, NSA presidents and POC leaders should have resigned after successive dismal failures and not cling to their positions with some apparently casting a moist eye on succeeding president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco in 2016.

We get the impression that the POC is desperately trying to salvage its competitive image in Singapore and are looking for support wherever they can get it and boxing, being one of the premier sports in delivering medals, they would like to assure themselves that we could do just as well in terms of boxing’s gold medal tally in the absence of Barriga and Suarez.

Vargas and ABAP executive director Ed Picson, who monitors the training and performance of our boxers on a daily basis, both believe that the AIBA pro boxing tournament is good for our boxers and Philippine boxing. We certainly agree.

If we look at the record,  many of our promising young amateurs have turned pro precisely because of lack of opportunities and if the POC officials make Barriga and Suarez look like ingrates, who are have no concern for their country, they may very well turn pro and we’ll lose them forever.

The so-called sports leaders must be circumspect in their statements and understand what the ABAP is striving to achieve.

ABAP president Ricky Vargas gave an assurance that the ABAP “would never do anything detrimental to the national sports program.” 

You’ve got to believe him because the record of the NSA speaks for itself.

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