Filipino boxers delivered a fruitful European tour after emerging with four gold medals in back-to-back tournaments in Serbia and the Netherlands.
Under the guidance of the Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines (ABAP), the Filipino boxers claimed two gold medals in the 63rd Belgrade Winner Elite Men’s and Women’s Boxing Tournament in Serbia as well as a pair of mints in the Eindhoven Box Cup in the Netherlands.
Clark Vicera and veteran Riza Pasuit ruled the men’s 50kg and women’s 57kg categories against tough opposition from 13 to 17 March in Belgrade.
Vicera started his campaign in the preliminaries with a unanimous decision win against 2024 Youth World Boxing Championships bronze medalist Dias Berikbay of Kazakhstan.
Then, he posted two more clean sweeps in the quarterfinals and semifinals against Ibrahim Aljohani of Saudi Arabia and Nurzat Ongarov of Kazakhstan before claiming the gold with a masterful 4-1 split decision victory over Salih Samet Oruc of Turkey.
Pasuit, on the other hand, started her campaign in the quarterfinals, but it was clear from the start that her opponents were no match for her. She did not lose a single scorecard throughout her campaign, earning unanimous decision wins against Victoria Vergos of Canada, Areti Stergiou of Greece and Ece Asude Ediz of Turkey in the gold medal match.
Paul Julyfer Bascon eventually added a bronze medal from the men’s 60kg division to wrap up the Filipinos’ impressive performance.
“We’re happy to bring home four gold medals from two high-caliber tournaments,” ABAP president Marcus Manalo said, who joined the boxers together with coaches Ronald Chavez, Elmer Pamisa, and Mario Fernandez, and physical therapist David Abraham Giray.
“However, more than the medals, we’re really happy with the performance of our boxers. They showed skill and determination in every match, as well as their fighting spirit when things got difficult against really good opponents. This is a sign that we’re heading in the right direction as we look forward to the upcoming Asian Games in September.”
A few days later, the team traveled to the Netherlands, where Vicera was once again unstoppable.
Vicera took home the gold medal by beating Sameer Ardawan of Belgium in the semifinals and Ruslan Bednychenko of Ukraine in the finals, both via unanimous decision.
It wasn’t an easy win for the young Vicera as he lost the first round, 5-0, to the bigger opponent, but his coaches made the right adjustments to help him sweep the next two rounds.
Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Carlo Paalam capped the golden haul by winning the men’s 55kg division.
