Between the world ending in December and the Philippines winning an Olympic gold medal this month, this writer is leaning on packing his bags for the great trip beyond.
Then again, as the old adage goes, hope springs eternal. As the country?s 11-man contingent starts to crumble amid the weight of the world-class competition in London, a diminutive pugilist, Mark Anthony Barriga, is literally carrying the fight to bring home the elusive gold medal.
The irony of it all is that Barriga almost did not make the trip. The 19-year-old Panabo, Davao del Norte native actually lost to China?s Zou Shiming in the quarterfinals of the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships, a qualifying tournament for the Olympics. Fortunately for Barriga, a belated twitch in the rules allowed him to secure a ticket to London.
Before heading to London, Barriga trained for three weeks in Cardiff, Wales. The hard work paid off, as Barriga debuted in the light flyweight class with a rousing 17-7 victory over Italian foe Manuel Cappai. Barriga countered with aplomb, flooring the taller Cappai early in the fight and repeatedly jarring the Italian with one-two combinations.
While impressive, Barriga?s victory over Cappai was only good for a spot in the round of 16. The road to the gold medal gets tougher as Barriga is now booked to face veteran Birzhan Zhakpov of Kazakhstan. Zhakpov, 28, was a bronze medal winner in the 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships. He fought in the 2008 Olympics but failed to reach the medal round after losing to Zou.
The gold medal favorite in the light flyweight class remains the fleet-footed Zou Shiming, who had previously defeated Barriga and Zhakpov and is competing in his third Olympics. The 31-year-old Zou is the most accomplished amateur boxer in China. He captured a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Games, three amateur world titles in 2005, 2007 and 2011, and was the gold medal winner in the 2008 Beijing Games. Zou gave China its first Olympic boxing gold medal in 2008 when he defeated P?revdorjiin Serdamba of Mongolia. He was relatively inactive in 2009 but came back stronger in 2011 by collaring his third world amateur boxing crown.
In the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships, Zou scored an impressive 12-5 win over Barriga. The taller and more skillful Shiming dominated right in the opening round, outscoring Barriga 5-1. He edged Barriga 3-2 in the second and piled up points anew in the third, 5-2, to win by a mile.
It is not going to be easy, but no victory will be sweeter in the London Games if Barriga pulls off a miracle in the boxing competitions. For the record, it is in the light flyweight class where Filipino boxers have been most successful in the Olympics. In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Leopoldo Serrantes bagged the bronze medal. Four years later, in the Barcelona Games, Roel Velasco, who now coaches Barriga, pocketed the bronze medal. In the 1996 Atlanta Games, Velasco?s younger brother, Mansueto ?Onyok? Velasco, settled for the silver medal after losing the gold medal match to Daniel Petrov of Bulgaria.
