Lopez blames Canadian ref for pug's loss

LONDON – Philippine delegation chef de mission Manny Lopez yesterday blamed Canadian referee Roland Labbe for quashing lightflyweight Mark Anthony Barriga’s hopes of advancing to the quarterfinals of Olympic boxing and called on AIBA to rid its ranks of “scalawags” who destroy the integrity of the sport.

 Labbe penalized Barriga in the third round of his bout against Kazakhstan’s Birzhan Zhakypov for alleged head-butting at the Excel South Arena last Saturday. The penalty added two points to Zhakypov’s score and virtually decided the outcome of the contest. Zhakypov was declared the winner on a 17-16 decision. Without the penalty, Barriga would’ve prevailed, 16-15.

“Labbe gave Zhakypov at least two cautions but never issued a penalty and Mark was penalized after only one caution,” said Lopez. “In a close contest, a referee shouldn’t decide the outcome with a call like that. Mark was ahead at the start of the third round and Labbe knew it. That’s why Labbe penalized Mark so that Zhakypov could get a break. The penalty demoralized and disappointed Mark. Before the end of the fight, Labbe probably wanted to show some kind of impartiality by penalizing both Zhakypov and Mark but it meant nothing because the double penalty just cancelled each other out. The damage had already been done. Labbe awarded the win to Zhakypov.”

Lopez said the incident proved that in Olympic boxing, the fight is on two fronts. “You’ve got to be able to win in and out of the ring,” he said. “It’s very clear that there’s a ton of things to do to improve our ability to win. It’s not just beating an opponent in the ring. It’s also establishing our influence off the ring. Mark didn’t lose to Zhakypov. He lost to AIBA and Labbe. I’m disappointed with how Mark was eliminated. I thought he beat Zhakypov.”

Barriga, 19, fell behind by a point after the first round but stormed back to take a 10-8 advantage entering the third. Zhakypov, 28, tried to overpower Barriga by resorting to wrestling tactics. “You can’t blame Zhakypov,” said Lopez. “He did what he had to do. Mark stood his ground and didn’t back down. Unfortunately, Labbe took the fight away from Mark. Since the start of the boxing event, AIBA has been criticized for poor officiating resulting in controversial decisions and protests. It’s not surprising that Kazakh fighters have been favored as Kazakhstan is very influential in AIBA.”

Lopez, who used to be ABAP president and is now the POC first vice president, said looking back, the country missed the boat in qualifying more fighters for London. “When I was with AIBA, we pushed for the inclusion of women’s boxing in the Olympic program as early as 2001 and we thought it would give us our first Olympic gold medal,” he said. “But in the world qualifiers, we sent only one female fighter to contend for only one of three Olympic slots and we chose a bantamweight who had to reduce to flyweight instead of a lightflyweight moving up to flyweight. The strategy was an error in judgment. Our contender lost in her first fight. When we were involved with ABAP, we qualified more fighters using less funds. Now, we’ve got a lot of funding but we’re not getting things done. I feel for Mr. (Manny) Pangilinan and Mr. (Ricky) Vargas who are giving their all-out support to ABAP. Maybe, it’s time we listen to what the boxers and coaches say regarding how ABAP is being run. As for me, I’ll always love boxing. I think boxing will give us our first Olympic gold medal and I’m willing to work in the background to do whatever is necessary to make that dream come true with nothing in exchange.”

Lopez backed up ABAP’s decision to file a protest after Barriga’s loss. “It was our right to protest,” he said. “We wanted to express our disgust in the way the fight was officiated and in the manner that AIBA was ruining the tournament. It’s a shame that AIBA is being dragged into controversy by incompetent referees and judges. Several foreign boxing officials told us what Labbe did was unfair to Mark. One 12-year AIBA veteran encouraged us to file a protest. Unfortunately, our protest was rejected by the jury and we weren’t even given a chance for a review by the technical delegate or head of the tournament.”

Lopez said with three Filipino athletes left standing, he’s not giving up hope for an Olympic medal here. “Our experience shows that we still need a lot of mental toughening,” he said. “In shooting, Brian (Rosario) proved his ability by firing a perfect third round. The problem was when he missed several targets in the second round, he lost his focus. When he fired a perfect round, it was too late to recover. As for Hidilyn (Diaz), it was sad the way she bowed out. She tried to lift 118 in the clean-and-jerk but the barbell hit her knee on the first attempt. That bothered her psychologically. She easily lifted 118 in practice so there was no reason why she couldn’t do it in actual competition. The archers did their best but it’s difficult to expect results after just a few months of training with their Korean coach. It takes at least six years to develop world-class athletes ready to compete in the Olympics. There are no short-cuts.”

Lopez said long jumper Marestella Torres, 5,000-meter runner Rene Herrera and BMX cyclist Danny Caluag remain in contention. “We’re hoping for the best,” he said. “We’ve given Danny everything he asked for, including two days of training in Birmingham and accreditation for his coaching team. He suffered a minor accident in training but he’s okay. Danny knows how to handle pressure.”