JAKARTA – Rogen Ladon will be fighting for the gold.
The 2016 Rio Olympian scored an impressive unanimous decision victory over Yuttapong Tongdee of Thailand with a masterful performance in their flyweight semifinal at Hall C of the Jakarta International Expo. Now the first boxer to score a win for the Philippines in the 2018 Asian Games is also the first to make it to the final match.
The flyweight Ladon was caught a few times by his power-punching foe in the first round but he quickly adjusted after Round 1. Instead of staying in the pocket and exchanging heavy punches with the Thai boxer, Ladon moved around and landed clean punches. His lead left was effective in halting the attacks of Tongdee but the Filipino also put his punches together whenever he had the opportunity.
Frustrated that he could not connect with his power punches, Tongdee resorted to dirty tactics in the third round in an effort to turn the fight around. The Thai took down Ladon and even punched him while he was down but the referee let him off without a point deduction.
Undeterred, Ladon just went back to what won him the second round. He threw one-twos, right hook counters, and lead lefts to win the third and punch his ticket to a gold-medal opportunity.
Three judges scored the fight a shutout at 30-27 while the other two had it 29-28.
Ladon will face Uzbekistan’s Jasurbek Latipov for the gold tomorrow.
The Philippine delegation has two more opportunities to reach the gold medal match as Carlo Paalam battles Amit of India in the light flyweight category while middleweight Eumir Marcial faces Israil Madrimov of Uzbekistan in the evening session.
