THE Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (Abap) has started in earnest its preparations for the Asian Games Jakarta is hosting in August.
Abap Secretary-General Ed Picson said association president Ricky Vargas has given the go-signal for several teams to embark on tune-up tournaments and training camps in the coming weeks to evaluate the boxers and ensure they are in top competition form.
“We also launched a local ‘Battle of Champions’ caravan-type tournament, where national boxers match up against each other in exhibition fights in different local venues to get them used to competition conditions and also to assess their capabilities,” Picson said.
The first leg was in Urdaneta City, Pangasinan, last month.
Six boxers will participate in the Indian Open, a 25-team tournament with 350 boxers, starting this Satuday. Abap’s Karina Picson was appointed by the Asian Boxing Confederation as tournament supervisor for the event to be held in New Delhi.
Also on Saturday, eight boxers will fly to Bangkok for a multination, two-week training camp at an isolated and vast training center in the hills of Muaklek, a suburb one-and-a-half-hour drive from the Thai capital.
Filipino-British John Tupas-Marvin, who won the light-heavyweight (81 kg) gold in the Southeast Asian Games last year in Kuala Lumpur, arrived from London last Friday and has been training in the Philippine Sports Commission-Abap Training Center in Baguio City before traveling with the team to Bangkok.
On February 1 middleweight (75 kg) Eumir Felix Marcial, the other 2017 SEA Games gold medalist, will participate in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) preliminary round in Paris, France.
Marcial was acquired by the Great Britain Lionhearts in the International Amateur Boxing Association (Aiba) tournament, which features 12 teams representing different countries. WSB matches are fought in five rounds, in contrast to the three-round fights in regular Aiba tournaments.
All the WSB teams are mandated to have foreign boxers because not all countries have the funds to put up their own teams.
Two other Filipinos were drafted by the Lionhearts—light-flyweight Carlo Paalam and bantamweight Mario Fernandez.
Another team sees action in the Asian Games Test Event in Jakarta on February 11.
Vargas said the efforts are being made with support from the PSC.