Charly Suarez emerges as lone PH boxing gold hope at Asian Games

INCHEON, South Korea – Philippines lightweight Charly Suarez survived a brawl against all-action Jordanian Mustafa Alkasbeh at the Asian Games Thursday, October 2 to earn a shot at gold and at least one million Philippine pesos (US$22,300).

He will face Mongolia’s Otgondalai Dorjnyambuu in Friday’s final after edging a thriller by split decision.

“I don’t know how I got through that,” Suarez told AFP after three furious rounds that left Alkasbeh in tears at the result. The Jordanian had shocked South Korea’s Olympic silver medallist Han Soon-Chul in the quarter-final.

The Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines has said an Asian Games gold medal will carry a 3 million pesos (US$67,000) reward for the boxer, with 1 million ($22,300) for a silver and 750,000 ($16,700) for a bronze.

“The opponent was like a machine,” said Suarez’s coach Nolito Velasco.

“I told my boy to deliver one, two or three-punch combinations and step to the side.

“He (Alkasbeh) suffered in the last round with his endurance. And Charly was good in that round. It gave us the split decision.”

Suarez’s teammate Mark Anthony Barriga wasn’t so lucky. The junior flyweight lost a 3-0 decision to South Korean Jonghun Shin in the latest of controversial decisions for the host country that have marred the Asian Games.

Middleweight Wilfredo Lopez and bantamweight Mark Fernandez also lost decisions on Thursday, ending their campaigns with bronze medals.

India’s Sarita Devi rejected her bronze medal on Wednesday in an extraordinary scene, placing the medal on her Korean opponent.

After a tumultuous week, India have no complaints either as super heavyweight Satish Kumar was hopelessly outclassed by Olympic bronze medallist Ivan Dychko of Kazakhstan.

Dychko picked off the ponderous Kumar at will and probably could have put his opponent away, but chose to save his energy for the final 24 hours later against Iran’s Jasem Delavari.

There was an amazing scrap in the light heavyweight semi-final where South Korea’s Kim Hyeong-Kyu battled back from a second-round beating to edge home against the bulldozing Oybek Mamazulunov of Uzbekistan.

Kim used his greater reach to keep his opponent at bay early in the third round and recovered enough in the final minute to land some telling combinations.

“I couldn’t perform as well as I wanted,” said Kim. “He was really fast, and I just had to fight back hard.” Kim will face another Kazakh, Adilbek Niyazymbetov, in the final.

Kazakhstan’s world champion welterweight Daniyar Yeleussinov had survived a big scare in his quarter-final against Mongolia’s gallant Tuvshinbat Byamba.

But three days of rest saw him back to his best against Turkmenistan’s Serdar Hudayberdiyev. He will face Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrimov in the gold medal match. – Rappler.com