ABAP reviving grassroots program

The Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) said on Thursday that key issues relative to recruitment and grassroots would soon be addressed after the ABAP received a “substantial” amount from an unspecified source.

Coming off a pair of bronze medal performances in the Paris Olympics, ABAP secretary general Marcus Manalo said funding will be key in the seemingly-never-ending quest to win boxing’s first Olympic gold medal.

“We admittedly struggled in our grassroots program due to lack of of human and financial resources. We had to prioritize our elite program with the short turnaround between (the) Tokyo and Paris Olympics after the pandemic.”

Manalo said the national training pool only has 47 fighters and the ABAP just could not accommodate all the talents discovered in various national and local tournaments.

“We really need to expand the pool and we need to have provincial training centers so we don’t need to uproot them from their homes to bring them to the national training center. But it is easier said than done.”

The news of the ABAP’s intent to ramp up its grassroots and talent identification was welcomed by a former national team coach now residing in the United States.

“Congratulations ABAP for winning medals in the Olympics 2020 and 2024. Congratulations also for realizing that you need to expand the national pool by creating more provincial national training centers and augment much needed grassroots boxing program,” said Ting Ariosa, who was a member of the coaching staff that joined light-flyweight Nelson Jamili, flyweight Efren Tabanas and the late lightweight Leopoldo Cantancio.

Ariosa said staging more National Open tournaments “where the best Filipino boxers can be challenged by the upcoming boxing talents so that we may be able to compete and improve our boxing skills to the highest level locally,” he added.

Expected to welcome the ABAP’s thrust would be the stable operators in Cebu, most notably former amateur standouts Edito “Ala” VIllamor and Brix Flores, who won bronze during the 1986 Seoul Asian Games.

Even Mindanao should benefit from the ABAP’s outreach program given the talents in the cities of General Santos City, Digos, Tagum and Cagayan de Oro.