Will boxing bail out RP?

The seven-man Philippine boxing team got off to a blazing start at the Asian Games in Doha but after a lucky seven-win streak, the bubble burst with back-to-back losses.

It’s been 12 years since a Filipino has won an Asiad gold in boxing and Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) president Manny Lopez is hoping to end the drought with five fighters still in contention for a medal at presstime.

With the Philippines struggling to break into the Doha medal standings, boxing looms as the savior.

Yesterday, flyweight Violito Payla and featherweight Anthony Marcial saw action in the quarterfinals. Payla went up against India’s Jitender Kumar while Marcial took on Galib Jafarov of Kazakhstan. The reward for a win is a spot in the semifinals and a sure bronze medal.

Payla, 27, is a man on a mission. He’s the only holdover from the national squad that competed at the Busan Asian Games four years ago when only lightflyweight Harry Tañamor brought home a medal, a silver. Payla won one and lost one in Busan.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics, Payla lost a 36-26 decision to Uzbekistan’s Tulashboy Doniyorov in the first series of eliminations. The heartbreaking loss was totally unexpected since Payla had beaten Doniyorov twice in previous competitions. But Payla was never in the thick of it, taking a count for a knockdown in the second round and suffering a bad cut over the left eye.

The roof caved in on Payla when he was bumped off by Warlito Parenas for a slot in the national team that participated in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Manila last year. Parenas claimed a bronze in the division dominated by Thailand’s Somjit Jongjohor who’s the hot flyweight favorite in Doha.

But Payla’s back with a vengeance. In Doha, he whipped Iran’s Akbari Omran, 33-13, in his first fight then crushed SEA Games silver medalist Tran Quoc Viet of Vietnam, 35-11, to arrange the appointment with Kumar in the quarters.

Payla, by the way, is the only Filipino fighter in Doha with Olympic and Asian Games experience.

Marcial, 20, is the youngest in the group. He scored an emphatic 31-7 decision over Keo Inhta Sathit of Laos in his Asiad debut and beat Suraka Mahdi of Iraq by racing to a 24-4 lead at 1:57 of the second round to advance to the quarters. Under the rules, a fight is automatically stopped when a fighter opens a 20-point lead.

The three other Filipino survivors are a win away from a guaranteed bronze. Lightflyweight Godfrey Castro, 21, takes on Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahmry Ali Saad and bantamweight Joan Tipon, 24, faces Kim Won Guk of the People’s Republic of Korea in the quarters today. Tomorrow, it’s lightweight Genebert Basadre’s turn to go for a semis spot in a showdown with Turkmenistan’s Serdar Hudayberdiyev.

Castro trounced Malaysia’s Mohammad Zamzai Azizi by taking a 26-6 lead at 0:12 of the third round while Tipon defeated Chinese-Taipei’s Lu Shih Jung, 23-10.

Basadre, 22, won the lightweight gold at the SEA Games last year, victimizing Thailand’s Tun Dansaniak, 28-19, Malaysia’s Paunandes Bin Paulus, 28-9 and Indonesia’s Niftah Lubis by outclass (23-3 in the third round). He became an overnight crowd darling in Doha by coming back from a 13-16 deficit at the start of the fourth round to eke out a 20-19 decision over two-time Olympian Ali Ashgar Shah of Pakistan in his first and only outing so far.

Castro, Tipon and Basadre drew byes in the first series so a win put them straight to the quarters.

Losing in their bids to advance were superlightweight Delfin Boholst who dropped a 31-12 verdict to Shin Myung Hoon of Korea and welterweight Francis Joven who took three standing eight-counts to bow out by stoppage to Angkhan Chompbuphuang of Thailand.

Five Filipino fighters roared to a 7-0 start in the first three days of competitions before Boholst tumbled out last Tuesday and Joven fell the next day.

Thailand’s three Athens Olympic medalists are in Doha. Superlightweight gold medalist Manus Boonjumnong, bantamweight silver medalist Worapoj Petchkoom and middleweight bronze medalist Suriya Prasathinphimai went to the Asian Games with high hopes of hitting paydirt. Manus and Worapoj are still alive but Suriya was upset by Shukuralla Atajanov of Turkmenistan on a second round stoppage in the first series of eliminations.

Two-time Olympian Suban Pannon, 28, is Thailand’s bet in the lightflyweight division. He won an Asian Games gold in Bangkok in 1998 and settled for a bronze in Busan four years later. Suban lost to Tañamor in the SEA Games last year but with the Filipino struck out of the national lineup for disciplinary reasons, the Thai sees the way clear for another gold medal in his collection.

The conduct of the tournament has been smooth sailing so far. Long-time International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) president and dictator Anwar Chowdry was recently deposed by Ching Kuo Wu of Taiwan in an election in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. That ended decades of despotic rule by the controversial Chowdry and paved the way for the return of integrity in the sport.