Saludar topples Canadian in world boxing championship

MANILA, Philippines - Guangzhou Asian Games gold medalist Rey Saludar edged Canadian Kenny Lally, 21-20, to advance to the next round of the 52-kg category in the World Boxing Championships at the Hayder Aliyev Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan Tuesday.

Saludar’s victory made it 2-0 for PLDT-ABAP national team after Mark Anthony Barriga dominated Stefan Caslarov of Romania, 12-5, Monday.

Scoring on hard left straights to the head and the body, Saludar led, 9-6, and 16-12, and looked headed to a runaway victory. But the Canadian champion fought back to close the gap, leaving the Filipino all the fight he needed to pull off the cliffhanger.

Another Asian Games champion, bantamweight Joan Tipon, who won the gold in Doha, Qatar in 2006, goes up against Argentina’s Albert Melian Wednesday in the Olympic qualifying tournament featuring 570 boxers from 130 countries.

On Thursday, Delfin Boholst gets his turn against the Netherlands’ Stephen Danyo.

Rolando Tacuyan will have his debut fight on Sept. 30 against Mehdi Toloutibandpi of Iran and the last to see action for the Filipinos will be Charly Suarez on Oct. 1 in his lightweight match against Ecuadorian Luis Porozo.

Barriga’s second bout will be on Oct. 3 against eighth seed Patrick Barnes of Ireland. If he wins, Barriga will likely meet Chinese Olympic gold medalist, Zou Shiming, who also won his first fight Monday with a 17-9 victory over Juan Medina of Dominican Republic.

Three wins are needed to land a boxer in the quarterfinals, which is the standard here for Olympic qualification. Since there will be 10 qualifiers, the two round of 16 boxers who lose to the eventual gold and silver medalists in their division will also be eligible for London.