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ASTANA, Kazakhstan—Genebert Basadre carried the load for the RP
PLDT-Smart Boxing Team Monday night as top bet Joan Tipon was
unceremoniously bundled out of the final Asian Olympic Boxing
Qualifying Tournament at the Sports Palace.
The 24-year-old Basadre overpowered Paulus
Paunandes of Malaysia, 21-2, to barge into the quarterfinals of the
lightweight (60-kg.) division.
Basadre’s win saved the day for the team,
supported by PLDT, Smart, Philippine Sports Commission and Pacific
Heights, which earlier saw Doha Asian Games bantamweight gold
medalist Joan Tipon absorb a 30-8 trashing from H. Todjivayev of
Uzbekistan.
“Hindi si Joan yang naglaro ngayon,”
lamented RP head coach Pat Gaspi, who celebrated his 46th birthday
Monday in a somber note. “Mabuti na lang at nanalo si Genebert [Basadre].
Medyo maganda pa rin ang araw ko.”
Basadre, a bronze medalist in the Doha Asian
Games in 2006, took control of the four-round match early,
repeatedly scoring with his counterpunch-backoff-attack stance that
completely kept the Malaysian off-sync.
He led 12-2 after two rounds and never looked
back from there allowing the Malaysian to score only a point in the
next two rounds to win convincingly.
But what Basadre offered the Malaysian, Tipon
accepted from the Uzbek as he fell prey to the counterpunches of
Todjibayev, who got added assistance from the referee who awarded
him with four extra points by assessing Tipon points deduction in
the second and third rounds for what he perceived were illegal
elbowing and clinching by the Filipino.
“Talo talaga kahit hindi tinulungan ng
referee,” Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines president
Manny Lopez said. “He was not the Tipon we know in that fight. He
was not focused for that fight.”
Even Cuban consultant Juan Enrique Steyners
Tissert was surprised by the way Tipon performed.
“I don’t know what happened to Tipon. He was
very good in sparring, training but he lost all his shots in the
fight,” Tissert rued. “His mind was not in the fight.”
The Bacolod-based Tipon scored the bout’s
first point—a right straight to the face of the Uzbek—but that
was the best he could do as Todjibayev warmed up to take a 4-2 lead
after the first round, the Filipino found himself hitting the air
often and saw the Uzbek retaliate for three points every time he
gets one.
The three other members of the team—flyweight
Godfrey Castro, featherweight Orlando Tacuyan Jr. and light
welterweight Delfin Boholst—try to carry the momentum of
Basadre’s victory on Tuesday when they wade into battle.
Castro tangles with Giesidin Saliev of Kyrgiztan,
Tacuyan faces Taiwanese Chung Chun-an and Boholst goes up against
Uranchimeg Munkh-Erdene of Mongolia.
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