PROMISING Mark Ashley Fajardo and Ronald Chavez Jr. posted contrasting wins last Tuesday night and advanced to the next round of the World Olympic Qualification Boxing Tournament at the E-Work Arena in Busto Arsizio, Italy.
A Hangzhou Asian Games veteran Fajardo, 19, was given special mention in the boxing.athlete365.org website for delivering “a spectacular performance, overpowering Portugal’s Albertino Monteiro with a devasting KO win in round 3.”
After dominating the first two rounds, the young Pinoy pug stopped the Portuguese with 43 seconds to go in the third round of their welterweight match, advancing to the second round today against Colombia’s Viafra Fiory Jose Manuel, who won a close 3-2 decision over Italy’s Malaga Gianluigi.
The Talisay, Cebu native was way ahead — two judges gave him scores of 20-18 while three had him up 20-17 — when he ended the Olympic bid of the Portuguese.
It was a different story for Chavez Jr., son of former national boxer turned coach Ronald Sr., who had to sweat it out before scoring a slim 3-2 win over Cape Verde’s Fernandes de Barros Bruno in their light middleweight clash.
Three judges gave the Filipino fighter identical scores of 29-28 while his rival won the nod of two others with the same scores of 30-27.
Chavez Jr. will next face Jordan’s Eashash Zeyad, who whipped Tajikistan’s Shukhorov Shokhobzhon 4-1, in the second round today of the competition that will have 49 quota slots up for grabs for the Paris Olympic boxing tournament.
Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Nesthy Petecio, who won her opening match with a first-round knockout of Serbian Andjela Brankovic last Monday, goes up against Romania’s Maria Claudia Nechita in their featherweight bout today.
Rio Olympian and veteran Rogen Ladon resumed his campaign last night when he faced Moroccan Said Mortaji in the second round of the men’s flyweight division.
Making their debuts in the tournament yesterday were Herge Bacyadan, who was set to meet Brazil’s Viviane Pereira, and John Marvin Tupas, who was to collide with Iran’s Amiri Pouria, in the women’s 75kg and men’s 92kg preliminaries, respectively.
Scheduled to make an appearance tomorrow is Tokyo Summer Games silver medalist Carlo Paalam, who drew an opening-round bye. He takes on Ecuador’s Jean Carlos Caicedo Pachito in the second round of the men’s featherweight division.
