MANILA, Philippines - Aston Francis Palicte produced the worthiest win so far as he fashioned out a third-round stoppage of Hong Kong’s Cho Cheng Yu in their bantamweight clash in the China Open in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China Wednesday.
Palicte, 19, stopped Cho in 1:37 of the third round after the Filipino fighter scored four standing 8 counts, once in the opening round, twice in the second and another one in the third.
The bout ended with Palicte way ahead, 21-4.
The win assured Palicte of a bronze medal and it came after Laos SEA gold medal winner Charly Suarez beat Syrian Chaman Weesap, 9-5, to advance to the quarterfinal round in the featherweight class.
The PLDT-RP boxing team, whose campaign is supported by the Philippine Olympic Committee and Philippine Sports Commission, is assured of another bronze courtesy of light flyweight Gerson Nietes who drew a bye and will see action Friday against Idyaz Sulay-Minov of Kazakhstan in one of the semifinal bouts.
Meanwhile, Suarez and Rey Saludar and Wilfredo Lopez resume their respective campaigns with Suarez squaring off with European circuit veteran Dmitry Polyansky of Russia.
Saludar, bronze medalist in last year’s SEA Games, takes on 2008 Olympic light flyweight champion Zou Shimming in a 51kg preliminary encounter while Lopez slugs it out with Mutaz Don Duk of Jordan in a welterweight quarterfinal match.
Polyansky is a silver medalist in the tough AIBA President’s Cup last year held in Baku, Azerbaijan where the Russian impressed aficionados with his highly accurate body punching.