JOSIE GABUCO yielded her women’s light flyweight gold medal to a younger opponent from Uzbekistan in the Asian Boxing Confederation Asian Elite Men and Women Boxing Championship on Thursday in Dubai.
Gabuco, 34, couldn’t get 21-year-old Gulasal Sultonalieva’s numbers in their semifinal fight and bowed out, 1-4, in the competition being held in a bubble setup at the Le Meridien Hotel Grand Ballroom.
But the Uzbek had to employ wily tactics against Gabuco, who couldn’t shake off Sultonalieva’s constant pushing and hugging.
The five-time Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist Gabuco settled for a bronze and the $2,500 prize money that went with the medal.
Sultonalieva, 21, will meet Alua Balkybekova of Kazakhstan in the final.
Men’s middleweight top seed and Tokyo Olympics-bound Eumir Felix Marcial fought Uzbekistan’s Jafarov Saidjamshid, along with light flyweight Mark Lester Durens and bantamweight Junmilardo Ogayre, who faced Kazakhstan’s Daniyal Sabit and Uzbekistan’s No. 1 seed Mirazizbek Mirzahalilov, respectively, in the semifinals late Friday.
Gabuco, lightweight Jere Samuel Dela Cruz, flyweight Marvin Tabamo, light welterweight John Paul Panuayan and women’s lightweight Maricel dela Torre exited from the tournament early in the week.
The Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, meanwhile, will send Marcial to the United States Olympic Boxing Training Center in Colorado Springs for the last stage of his preparations for Tokyo. Josef Ramos
Marcial was supposed to fry out of Dubai to join his fellow Olympic qualifiers in Thailand, but failed to secure a visa. The Thai government has decided to enforce visa requirements for foreigners during the pandemic.
Abap Secretary-General Ed Picson said Marcial willjoin a multi-nation training camp in Colorado Springs where six American Olympic qualifiers are also based.
“On instructions of Abap President Ricky Vargas, I contacted my counterparts in USA Boxing [the American boxing federation] and they graciously granted our request for Eumir and one Abap coach to join the camp,” Picson said.
Abap will also try to send Olympic qualifiers Nesthy Petecio, Irish Magno and Carlo Paalam and their coaches to Colorado Springs.