Tipon, Castro eye bronze

DOHA — Joan Tipon, the best medal hope in the boxing team, tries to live up to the hype and earn another medal for the Philippine contingent in the Asian Games here as he slugs it out with North Korean Kim Won Guk in the quarterfinal round of the bantamweight division Friday.

Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines president Manny Lopez has picked Tipon as the country’s best bet in boxing, a perennial gold medal producer for the country but which only got silver in the last Busan Asiad after a three gold medal haul in Hiroshima in 1994.

"He’s in shape but what makes him awesome is his style, grit and determination," said Lopez of his ace fighter who won the Best Boxer award in the Asian Championships in Vietnam last year.

But the reigning SEA Games champion will have a lot of work to do against Kim unlike when he opened his bid with a clinical 23-10 victory over Taiwan’s Liu Shih Jung Monday.

Kim is not only a power puncher but also enjoys the edge in height and reach which he hopes to make full use of. The North Korean bet pummelled Chinese Yu Gu, 30-16, in the other elims bout in the 54kg division.

A victory by Tipon will send him to the semifinal round, a phase first-timer Godfrey Castro is also targeting as he goes up against Ali Saad Al Ahmry of Saudi Arabia in one of the quarterfinal matches in the flyweight category.

A replacement for the veteran Harry Tañamor, who accounted for the Philippines’ silver medal finish in Busan, Castro has shown his worth in putting away Malaysian Azizi Zamzai Mohamad with an RSC-O (referee stopped contest-outscored) win Monday. But a win over Al Ahmry will further validate his claim as one of the fighters to watch in the Philippine team.

The Philippines has been assured of a bronze medal courtesy of flyweight Violito Payla, beating India’s Jitender Kumar. (Related story on Page 22) Anthony Marcial later lost to Kazakhstan’s Galib Jafarov .

Lightweight Genebert Basadre is the fifth and last RP medal hope after Delfin Boholst and Francis Joven bowed out of competition with setbacks to more superior rivals. Basadre, who barely made it past Ali Asghar Shah, 20-19, Monday, fights Serdar Hudayberdiev of Turkmenistan on Saturday.