Local pug leads march to finals

IBA, Zambales, Philippines – Melvin Jakaran of Zambales put on a show Thursday evening at the Capitol grounds here and towed seven others into the finals of the PLDT-ABAP National Capital Region/Luzon boxing tournament.

Fighting in the bantamweight class of youth boys division (17-18 years), Jakaran rained punches on Rommel Ibasco of Tayabas. And while he took a few good hits, Jakaran was the clear winner at the end of the bout, 30-12.

Both fighters engaged in non-stop action.  In the closing round, Jakaran and Ibasco looked all spent but tried hard to stay on their feet. But the crowd cheered them on, and they traded punches until the end.

As a precautionary measure, medics attended to Jakaran and Ibasco after they stepped out of the ring. Both were fine, just exhausted.

Jakaran will need a full tank when he faces Jovan Solimoro of Rizal Technological U in the finals Friday evening at the open-air venue. There will be eight other gold medal bouts in this slugfest organized by the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines.

Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. is expected to grace the finals.

“This will be exciting to watch,” said ABAP executive director Ed Picson of the final bouts where the winners will advance to the National Finals scheduled Feb. 17 to 23 in Maasin, Southern Leyte. In the National Finals are the other winners in the Visayas (Bago City) and Mindanao (General Santos City) legs.

Also advancing to the finals Thursday evening were La Union’s Aldrin Tatunay and RTU’s Porferio Aus Jr. in the junior boys (15-16 years) light-flyweight class; Tayabas’ Jeric Ferrer and RTU’s Stephen Bontoyan in the junior boys’ light-bantamweight; and Sorsogon’s Charlie Foster and San Fernando City’s Ryan Torres in the youth boys’ lightfly.

National coaches Boy Velasco, Pat Gaspi and Mitchell Martinez, as well as jurors Dante de Castro and Jesus San Esteban watched from ringside, and said there are young, unknown boxers worth watching.

Tatunay defeated  Jerome Labitag of Sorsogon  in Thursday’s opening bout, 7-5; Aus stopped Arnold delos Santos of Olongapo in the 1:45 mark of the second round; Ferrer outclassed Clemen Balaois of Iba (RSC 1:29 first round); and Torres drove past Reynard Sitenta of Zambales, 21-7. Bontoyan and Splimoro won via walkover against Michael Gorospe of Tarlac and Richard Malig-on of Pasig.

NOTES: Vinerando Rea is here wearing more than two hats. He is the vice mayor of Tayabas in Quezon and is also the manager of the town’s boxing team. On top of that, he is an accredited boxing RJ (referee/judge). “I’ve spent  much time running the sports development program in Tayabas. And since I manage the boxing team, I thought of becoming a referee. I joined a boxing seminar and took some tests and became a referee/judge in 2010,” he said. Rea is in his third and last term as vice mayor, and in the 2013 elections he will slide down as councilor. “Then in 2016, I will run as mayor,” he said. “But I enjoy being a boxing referee. And besides, we have an honorarium here.” This town official works hard for the money.