Puentevella wants Cuban coaches for 4 more years

BEIJING – Philippine chef de mission and Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella said the first round loss of top boxer Harry Tañamor Wednesday night should bring about reforms in boxing to ensure the Philippines’ competitiveness in international competitions.

“First and foremost we need a bigger pool of boxers. Second, we need the Cuban coaches to stay here for another four years to train our boxers,” said Puentevella.

“I’ve always been frustrated with boxing, from the time of Onyok Velasco to the Athens Olympics and Asian Games and now here in Beijing,” he added.

“What can we do? We don’t like the scoring system but that’s how the ball bounces. I’ll always be frustrated with boxing as long as there’s no transparency in the sport.”

Cuban coach Juan Enrique Steyners Tissert had complained the judges failed to score the body punches of Tañamor in his 6-3 loss to Ghanaian Manyo Plange in the first round of the light flyweight event of the Olympic boxing competition.

“The important thing now is for us to continue the development of amateur boxing,” said Puentevella.

The Bacolod solon and weightlifting association president said the country drew only 120 boxers to last year’s national championships, which served as the qualifying round for the RP team that competed in world qualifying events for the Beijing Olympics.

He said he expects to increase this to 500 to 600 when the national boxing championships are held in Bacolod in December.

“We shall have more boxers for the Olympics, thanks to the popularity of Manny Pacquiao,” said Puentevella. “We should now have a bigger pool selection and a strong national team that can fight Thailand in the Southeast Asian Games.”

He said the Philippines could create a big national pool and, eventually a strong national team with the help of Cuban coaches.

“We can do that if the two Cuban coaches stay for another four years,” he said.  “With them, our boxers will have more and better training.”