Saludar, Barriga blow London bids

MANILA, Philippines - Light flyweight Mark Anthony Barriga and flyweight Rey Saludar absorbed stinging setbacks from a pair of seasoned rivals and dropped their bid for Olympic berths in the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan Tuesday.  

The pint-sized Barriga bowed to highly touted Zou Shiming of China, 5-12, while Saludar dropped a 12-22 decision to American Rau’Shee Warren.

“He outsmarted me. He’s really good, very elusive and clever,” said the 18-year-old Barriga of Zou, a two-time world champion and Beijing Olympics gold medalist.

“But if I get another chance, I’ll be better prepared for him next time,” he said.

Saludar, the Guanzhou Asian Games gold medalist, bloodied Warren’s nose in the first round with a wicked straight but the two-time American Olympian still came away with a 7-2 lead in the first round and padded his lead to 16-8 in the second before moving into the quarterfinal round.

“It was exasperating. There were more than a dozen Filipino expats who came to watch the fight and asked us to explain the lopsided scores, I couldn’t. At worst I thought it was close. But this is sport and we have to accept the decision. If there had been a major anomaly, the jury would have overturned the decision,” said Ed Picson, delegation head of the PLDT-ABAP team.

But all is not lost for Barriga and Saludar after AIBA announced that there will be 10 qualifiers, instead of the top 8 in each category (except in the heavyweight and super-heavyweight). The eight quarterfinalists will clinch Olympic berths while two slots go to the round of 16 losers to the eventual gold and silver medalists. Thus, if Zou and Warren make it all the way to the finals, Barriga and Saludar will get tickets to London Games.

Meanwhile, the Asian qualifiers will be held in Kazakhstan next year with the number of qualifiers to depend on how many would be left of the Asian quota of 54 after the tournament in Azerbaijan.