Boxing gold

For the second straight Asiad, the Philippines is coming home with zero gold medals in boxing, a sport where we can once consistently win a gold or two in Asia’s biggest sports stage.

Sure, there were some odd decisions here and there, not just involving the Philippines as what Abap sec gen Ed Picson said. There was even one losing finalist and her coach who refused to get off the ring after a controversial decision.

Still bum decisions and all, it’s quite disappointing how boxing turned out in the Asian Games and I’m no expert why we got zero gold again for the second straight Asiad.

I am just curious though that two years after Aiba allowed pro fighters to fight in “amateur” boxing or international boxing if you want to borrow the football term, why is that road still closed in PHL boxing?

For sure pros who have joined international competitions have fared badly, with two of them getting knocked out in the Rio Olympics and one also getting stopped by our own Eumir Marcial in Jakarta.

In professional boxing, money dictates the path of a fighter and for the world champions and those a step away from a world title fight, I think they’d rather stick with the pros.

But for those fringe fighters--not the patsies, mind you-- I’m sure a P10-million incentive is more than enough to make them join local elims don’t you think? That P10 million is just what the PSC will give but I think that like what happened to Hidilyn Diaz in 2016, whoever wins the country’s first Olympic gold medal will get more that what is warranted. Aside from what was mandated by the PSC, Diaz got more from private sponsors and companies.

For a country hungry for that Olympic gold medal, I think a king’s ransom in incentives will be in the offing and that’s going to be a quite a motivator wouldn’t it? And this P10 millions goes solely to the fighter, there’s no cut for the manager, trainer or even promoter.

Given the chance, I’m sure our pros will consider fighting for the flag, but so far, that’s not in the drawing board of Abap but who knows, it’s still two years before Tokyo, maybe something might change.