Charly Suarez drops decision to Mongolian, settles for Asiad silver

MANILA, Philippines – Charly Suarez, the lone Filipino boxer to make it to the gold medal round at the 2014 Asian Games, lost a split decision to Mongolia’s Otgondalai Dorjnyambuu to settle for lightweight silver in Incheon, South Korea on Friday, October 3.

One judge scored the bout 30-27 for Suarez but was overruled by the other two, who saw the bout 29-28 for Dorjnyambuu. Suarez, 26, was outboxed in the first round by the taller Mongolian, who made good use of his long left jab. 

Suarez, a two-time SEA Games gold medalist from Panabo City, Philippines, decided to turn the fight into a brawl, desperately sacrificing his defense to land his own punches. It seemed he struck pay dirt midway through the second when a right hand of his opened a cut on Dorjnyambuu’s left eye. The referee brought the Mongolian to the doctor to inspect the wound but ruled the fight could continue. 

Needing something dramatic, Suarez continued to press the action but the Mongolian’s superior balance enabled him to find better positioning for combination punching. 

The result leaves the Philippines without a boxing gold medal at the Asian Games for the first time since the 2002 Games in Busan, South Korea. The Philippines final medal tally from the boxing events is one silver and three bronze medals, which were won by bantamweight Mario Fernandez, junior flyweight Mark Anthony Barriga and middleweight Wilfredo Lopez.

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The silver medal will earn Suarez a P1 million bonus ($22,401 USD) from chief sponsor PLDT, while the three bronzes will earn the boxers P750,000 each ($16,801 USD).

The Philippines’ lone gold medalist so far came in the BMX event, when Daniel Caluag topped the competition on Wednesday. The Philippines’ other two silver medals came in wushu competition while the six other bronze medals have come in tae kwon do (4), wushu (1) and archery (1). – Rappler.com