ALMATY, Kazakhstan – Former World Series of Boxing (WSB) standout Charly Suarez hurdled his semifinal match against Otdondalai of Mongolia with relative ease to enter the championship round of the President’s Cup here in scorching summer weather.
With temperatures reaching 38 degrees centigrade, fans crowded the fully air-conditioned Baluak Sholan Palace of Culture and Sports and again gave Suarez a rousing ovation as he stamped his class on the game Mongolian.
Still, one of the judges, a Kazakh from the Shymkent region, gave Otdondalai the nod, scoring all three rounds in the latter’s favor for a total score of 27-30.
“I just did what I had to do because I was preparing for the big fight on Sunday,” said Suarez. “But I don’t understand that score. Still, a win is a win”.
The two other judges submitted tallies of 30-27 and 29-28 for the Sawata, Davao del Norte native.
Suarez’s opponent in the finals on Sunday is Berik Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan.
Rey Saludar tries to duplicate Suarez’s feat as he faces Ilyas Suleimenov of Kazakhstan in their own semifinal match in the flyweight class.
The two boxers had met twice before and their head-to-head count is 1-1. The Kazakh was in the London Olympics but did not have a podium finish.
The PLDT-ABAP participation here is part of the final selection process for the Asian Games line-up. Another batch of boxers leave on Sunday for the China Open in Guiyang, China.