Petecio shocks champ

World Women’s Boxing Championships

MANILA, Philippines — Nesthy Petecio showed her readiness to compete in the Southeast Asian Games as she stunned Olympian and former world champion Stanimira Petrova of Bulgaria in their featherweight bout in the World Women’s Boxing Championships in Ulan Ude, Russia Saturday night.

Petecio, 27, displayed tremendous grit to edge the second-seeded Petrova, 3-2, in a slam-bang contest and set up a second-round showdown with China’s Jieru Chia.

It was a massive win for the Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur native as she pulled the rug from under the world champ five years ago in Jeju City, Korea. Petrova is also a former Euro champ in bantam and featherweight and 2016 Rio Olympics veteran.

Interestingly, Petecio, whose Russian trip is bankrolled by the Philippine Sports Commission, managed just a silver in the featherweight class in the same World Championships.

“It’s a great start,” said Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines secretary-general Ed Picson.

Bantamweight Aira Villegas drew a first-round bye and will face an Indonesian foe on Wednesday while flyweight Irish Magno absorbed a painful 1-4 defeat to Chinese Zongju Cai in this tournament that drew participation of 256 boxers from 73 countries.

The Philippines is also looking at raking medals in the 30th Southeast Asian Games where 13 Filipinos pugs are entered including five women in Petecio, Villegas, Magno, Josie Gabuco (light fly) and Risa Pasuit (light).

The 30th SEAG slugfest is set at the PICC Forum in Pasay City.

Petecio hopes to finally strike gold after winning three consecutive SEAG silvers.