Filipino boxers continued to impress in the Southeast Asian Games as flyweight Rogen Ladon and lightweight Charly Suarez picked up wins over their opponents from Indonesia and Myanmar Thursday at the PICC Forum. However, the Philippine contingent also suffered their first loss of the tournament. Light heavyweight John Marvin, the gold medalist of the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, lost via split decision.
To open the Filipino boxers' campaign in Day 2 of the 30th SEA Games boxing competitions, 2016 Rio Olympian Ladon survived a tough match against Aldoms Suguro of Indonesia.
Four judges scored the fight for Ladon 29-28 thrice and while the other scored it as a shutout, 30-27. The fifth judge had the bout 29-28 in favor of the Indonesian who was visibly upset after the match.
It was a tight contest with Ladon connecting cleaner punches in the opening round but Aldoms furiously fought back in the second as he was the aggressor with Filipino trying to pick his spots and score on counters.
In the end, the judges sided with Ladon who had the cleaner blows in the match even though the Indonesian also had his moments.
After competing in three professional boxing matches earlier this year, Suarez decided to give amateur boxing one more run as he did not want to pass up on the opportunity of fighting in front of Filipino fans.
Suarez landed a lot of meaningful punches in the first round as it was clear that Arkar Paing Min was not on the same level. To the younger fighter from Myanmar's credit, he decided to throw caution to the wind and try to exchange heavy leather with Suarez but the Filipino landed a crisp right straight at the 2:20 mark of the second round that dazed and floored Min.
Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Suarez went for the kill to score another knockdown, forcing the referee to stop the fight. However, Suarez may have thought that it was ruled as a slip instead of a fight stoppage. He threw another combination at Min who gamely fought back before the referee reiterated that the match was already over.
In the final match of the night, Marvin faced Vietnam's Truong Dinh Hoang. Disaster happened for the Filipino-British fighter in the first round as Truong connected with a huge overhand right that knocked Marvin down.
Truong tried his best to finish but Marvin did a great job of clinching to give himself an opportunity to recover. The Filipino fans did their best to help Marvin rally with their loud cheers as he banked on his jabs to keep his Vietnamese foe at bay. The third round was more of the same for Marvin but Truong also upped his output as he threw every punch with mean intentions.
Three judges scored in 29-28 for Truong while the other two sided with Marvin via the same score.
On Friday, light flyweight Carlo Paalam, light flyweight Josie Gabuco and bantamweight Aira Villegas look to follow up their dominant wins last Wednesday as see action in the semifinals, while World Cup silver medalist Eumir Marcial debuts in the middleweight division.