MANILA, Philippines - Charly Suarez pulled off a victory in his debut with the Italia Thunder, beating German Robert Harutyunyan in five rounds at the start of the World Series of Boxing at the Mediolanum Forum Assago in Milan, Italy over the weekend.
Suarez, one of the country’s leading fighters, dominated Harutyunyan with his hand speed and footwork but settled for a split decision win on a pair of 49-46 scores in their lightweight match. The other judge had the same score for the German fighter.
The WSB allows team to tap boxers from other countries to beef up their respective rosters. Suarez, who failed to make it to the London Olympics, saw action for the Mumbai Fighters of India last year.
The 24 year-old Davao native unloaded sharp combinations against his taller rival in the early going to seize control. Suarez then came through with a vicious left hook that opened a nasty cut above Harutyunyan’s right eye in the fourth round to the cheers of the big crowd that included Filipino expats.
In an email to ABAP executive director Ed Picson, Suarez thanked “chair Manny V. Pangilinan, president Ricky Vargas, sec-gen Patrick Gregorio and all my fellow boxers and coaches in the PLDT-ABAP team. If not for them, I couldn’t have gotten here.”
The WSB is organized by AIBA (the International Boxing Association) and its format is five rounds of three minutes each, and does away with the headguards and singlets which are trade marks of Olympic style boxing. Because of this, many see the league as part of AIBA’s preparation for the launch of it’s professional boxing venture next year, the APB (AIBA Professional Boxing).
The rules allow Suarez to return to the Philippine national team whenever there is a tournament where his services are needed. Picson said Suarez is looking forward to fighting for the country in the SEA Games next year.
Suarez has declined several juicy offers for him to turn pro, saying “I still want to fight in the Olympics for my country. I am aiming for a slot in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.”
He missed going to London, losing in the finals of the Asian Olympic Qualifying tournament in Kazakhstan to China’s Qiang Liu to settle for the silver medal. Only the gold medalist in their division was accommodated for the Olympiad.