Suarez, Barriga blow bids for Rio Olympics

MANILA, Philippines - Charly Suarez and Mark Anthony Barriga’s bids for outright berths to the Rio Olympics via the AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) platform hit a snag after bowing to their respective foes over the weekend in separate bouts in the APB Cycle 1 Matches for Champions overseas.

Suarez absorbed a rather controversial loss to Beijing Olympian Hurshid Tojibaev in their lightweight duel at Daulet Sports Complex in Astana, Kazakhstan that left him out of the APB Inaugural title match next year.

The 26-year-old Suarez earned the nod of Swedish judge Stefan Nordin, 58-56, but lost in the eyes of Moldovan Anatoli Kaigorodov, 56-58. English judge Raymond Morley called it a 57-57 draw and Tojibaev was eventually declared winner after the countback. The Uzbek will face Kazakhstan’s Berik Abdrakhmanov, unanimous decision victor over Brazil’s Robson Conceicao (58-56, 58-56, 59-57), for the title.

London Olympian Barriga, for his part,  dropped a close split decision to China’s Bin Lyu in the light-flyweight division over at Lingnan Pearl in Foshan.

Barriga won on French judge Fathi Madfoua’s scorecard, 58-56, but lost on those of Vietnamese Vuong Trong Ngia, 55-59, and Greek Evangelos Bougiukas, 56-58. Lyu, a former world youth champion, got a crack at the APB inaugural title match against compatriot Zhonglin Wu, who scored a 2-1 win over Ecuador’s Carlos Quipo.

The APB serves as qualifying event to the 2016 Olympiad, where pro boxers under the APB will be eligible to compete. The top ranked fighter in each division will qualify for Rio.

“With their losses, the chances for them to qualify based on the APB ranking became slim. But they can still try to qualify in the next rounds in 2015 or in the world and continental qualifying tournaments for amateurs,”  Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines (Abap) executive director Ed Picson told The STAR yesterday.