Tacuyan, Nietes hold off World Youth foes

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Light-flyweight Gerson Nietes Jr. and lightweight Rolando Tacuyan fashioned out impressive wins but flyweight Welbeth Loberamis fell to a superior foe in the First International Boxing Association Youth World Championships Sunday at the Lopez Mateos Gymnasium here.

Nietes outclassed Puerto Rican Carlos Narvaez, 11-5, while Tacuyan shocked Hungarian Erik Sos by referee-stopped-contest with four seconds left in the second round.

Tacuyan, brother of national men’s team member Orlando Jr., seized momentum when his rapid fire combinations to Sos’ head forced the referee to make the count once in the first round and twice in the second.

Loberamis, an opening-day winner, bowed to Jonathan Gonzales of Puerto Rico, 18-5, in the slugfest featuring the world’s best boxers in the 17-18 year-old category.

Gonzales repeatedly scored with crunching left and right blows against the taller Filipino bet, who never recovered after a shaky, 2-7 start.

 Nietes was forced to use Loberamis’ mouthpiece when the referee told him to change his black mouth guard to a white one.

“I was having trouble breathing because the mouth guard didn’t fit,” said the 16-year-old Nietes, voted as the best boxer during the 2008 Palarong Pambansa in Puerto Princesa City and a gold medalist in last year’s Smart-PLDT National Open in Cagayan de Oro City.

Nietes, cousin of WBO titlist Donnie, took a 5-2 lead halfway through the four-rounder. He ended the third round with a crunching right hook, which hit the surging Puerto Rican in the face for an 8-4 lead.

To enter the quarterfinals, Nietes must hurdle Jasurbek Latipov of Uzbekistan today. The Uzbek fighter survived Selguk Eker of Turkey, 10-8.

Powerhouse Cuba, a favorite to rule the overall race, had a bad day as highly regarded light-flyweight Erwin Marks lost to Frenchman Jeremy Baccu, 28-25, in a thriller of a match even as Jose Joel Martinez lost via countback to Romanian Bogdan Juratoni in the welterweight preliminaries.