Pounding in Paris: Despite two bronzes, Phl boxing takes massive hit

Former national boxing team coach Sugar “Ting” Ariosa believes the staging of regular monthly local tournaments — instead of costly overseas camps — will be key in the country’s seemingly never-ending quest for an Olympic gold medal.

A five-man team — made up if two males and three females — was sent to Paris but only debutant Aira Villegas and Tokyo silver medalist Nesthy Petecio delivered, bagging a bronze medal each.

Carlo Paalam, another Tokyo silver medalist and Eumir Marcial, who got the bronze also in Tokyo, were eliminated before reaching the medal rounds.

The third female entry, Hergie Bacyadan, also got the door in her first fight.

“Most of our boxers fought very well at the lower level then faded away as they elevated toward the Gold Medal Level,” Ariosa said in an online interview on Thursday.

Still, Ariosa admits there were fights “that could have gone our way.”

Case in point was Paalam’s stunning decision defeat to Australian Charlie Senior.

Though already residing in the United States, Ariosa has been closely monitoring the latest developments in the sport and he feels that “the main problem we have in our program is the reliance on foreign competition for exposure.”

“We must have more local high level monthly tournaments exposing our coaches, officials and boxers to such experiences needed instead of just taking a handful of talents under a camp which is based on expensive out of the country vacation type training experience,” said Ariosa, who also became a part of Manny Pacquiao’s training team later on.

The group that runs amateur boxing in the country, the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP), is headed by Robbie Puno and chaired by Ricky Vargas.

Through its solid links with tycoon Manny Pangilinan, the ABAP is one of the country’s top national sports associations given boxing’s storied past and its MVP connection.

But ever since the MVP-backed ABAP began taking charge in 2009, the boxers could only bag two silvers and a bronze.

In London 2012, only one fighter qualified and Mark Anthony Barriga was eliminated early.

Four years later in Brazil, there were two entries: Rogen Ladon and Charly Suarez.

They were also ousted early in the tournament.

Tokyo may have been an aberration because Covid was still very much in play.

For Ariosa, who was a part of the 1984 squad to the Los Angeles Olympics, setting up camp at home and opening up the national team to everyone is key.

“We have to harness the efforts and talents of Filipino coaches, boxers, officials and followers within our country to train and compete at the highest level then the cream of the crop will be our representative in International competitions to get the elusive Gold Medals we been chasing all these years.”

Ariosa said the ABAP “is exclusive to the few national boxers and officials under their program.”

“There must be dozens of high-level amateur boxing teams all over our country that becomes the base of world-class competitions aiming to discover the best possible Olympic gold medal potential. Gone are the days where the national team can be challenged by other Filipino boxing program organizations outside ABAP.”

The five boxers who competed in Paris trained and saw action all over the world in the runup to the Olympics.

This year alone, the boxing team held camps in Europe, the United States and Thailand.

Even a few weeks before going to Paris, the ABAP joined a camp in Saarbrücken in Germany and even imported male sparring partners for the female boxers.

To remedy the problem, Ariosa is thinks the ABAP needs to “launch a National Open tournament where the gold, silver and bronze medalist automatically earn a spot in the national pool.”

Brix Flores, who now runs a stable in Cebu, expressed the belief that the Olympic gold in boxing will be realized.

“We will win it. Maybe in the next Olympics but I am still happy that we still got to bring home (two) bronze medals,” said Flores, bronze medal winner in the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul.

“Our rivals may have studied us.”

But another former amateur standout has a quite different observation.

While there is no issue with the Filipino boxer’s skill set, Edito “Ala” Villamor maintains that it probably boils down to one key factor.

And that one thing is the reason why Manny Pacquiao is a legend of legends.

“Commitment and dedication,” he said.

“Kung si Manny Pacquiao nag-amateur tapos lumaban sa Olympics maka gold yan dahil sa attitude niya being a boxer.”