THE Philippines ended its frustrating and fruitless campaign in the World Boxing Championships for Elite Men and Women yesterday (Tuesday in England) after light flyweight Jay Brian Baricuatro and lightweight Rizal Pasuit suffered contrasting losses at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England.
Fighting in the light flyweight (50-kilogram) division, Baricuatro wound up with a close 2-3 setback to veteran world championship silver medalist Martin Molina Salvador of Spain.
In a lively, action-packed match, Baricuatro, a silver medalist in the World Boxing Cup held early this year in Astana, Kazakhstan, won the nod of two judges with scores of 29-28 and 30-27, respectively, while the three others gave similar 29-28 scores to the Spanish boxer in their round-of-16 clash.
Pasuit, a 2023 Cambodia Southeast Asian Games silver medalist, could not make any headway against Brazilian Rebeca Santos de Lima, who pounded out a convincing 5-0 victory to advance to the quarterfinals.
Considered a force to reckon with on the global boxing stage, the Filipino standard-bearers will go home empty-handed in the inaugural edition of the meet organized by World Boxing, the newly-recognized world amateur boxing organization by the International Olympic Committee.
