The Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) admitted that they felt frustrated at how things have transpired for the Philippine team in the SEA Games.<\/p>\n
BANGKOK \u2014 The Philippine boxing team has been amiss so far in delivering what was expected to be a plethora medals to aid Team Philippines in its SEA Games 2025 bid\u00a0 after some head scratching losses to favored bets like Nesthy Petecio and Hergie Bacyadan.<\/p>\n
Both Olympians, Petecio and Bacyadan fell in the semis of their respective divisions, losing their only match of the biennial meet due to a bye in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Against their opponents, the two Filipino boxers fell via split decision, and the nature of how things transpired has left fans \u2014 and the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) \u2014 scratching their heads.<\/p>\n
Despite seeming like the more aggressive fighter, judges scored the Filipino pugs lower in the last round, while also handing some penalties late in the case of Bacyadan.<\/p>\n
ABAP Secretary General Marcus Manalo did not mince his words when he was asked to comment on the performance of the team so far. He didn\u2019t talk down on his athletes, but he did reserve some choice statements for the officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re doing well naman. Wala pa naman tayong masasabing performance na talagang something that we cannot be proud of so far. But obviously, there are just results that are not going our way,\u201d Manalo told POC Media at the venue on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAng pinakamasakit na itong kay Nesthy kasi di bale sana kung aggressive yung Indonesia in the last round, or if she was throwing accurate punches that were landing. But in terms of volume, in terms of accuracy, pareho kay Nesthy, so parang walang basis talaga para ibigay yung round dun sa Indonesia. Lalo na 4-1 pa yung score in the last round,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Social media was also abuzz with the result, especially seeing a multi-medalist in the Olympics crash out so early in the SEA Games.<\/p>\n
But Manalo said that there was no mistake about it, because even those who they would expect to root against the Philippines were also actually confused at how things transpired, opening up even more questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the Thai officials, couldn\u2019t believe the result. More importantly, even Indonesian sports minister was surprised with the result but unfortunately, that\u2019s how it is in boxing, there\u2019s no bout review, there\u2019s no protest,\u201d Manalo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[The] technical delegate doesn\u2019t want to speak to me, but I\u2019ll chase him up tomorrow. So, yun. It\u2019s just quite frustrating the past few bouts,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Chasing integrity<\/p>\n
While Manalo knows that efforts may be futile to actually overturn the results, he believes that there still needs to be worked on \u2014 especially as the sport faces a crossroads at the Olympic level because of similar issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDi naman bago ito sa boxing unfortunately. But part of the things that we have to deal with. Pero you know the sport really has to be better in terms of integrity, otherwise, baka we don\u2019t really deserve to be in the Olympics beyond 2028 kasi di natin mapakita sa mundo na may integrity tayo when it comes to refereeing and judging,\u201d said Manalo.<\/p>\n
As the boxing team moves forward with only two bronzes on the board days into the competition, Manalo just wants to get things over with in a fair and equal manner.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if there is no chance to overturn the bout, at least, tignan niyo lang kung ano yung nangyayari. Just for them to be aware\u2026 So, ayun yun lang naman ang pwede natin magawa kasi yung results, di naman narereview. Walang bout review, there\u2019s no protest. So walang way talaga to challenge it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Boxing still has a ways to go here in the SEA Games, with bouts extending up until the day before the closing ceremonies. The event concludes with the gold medal matches across divisions on December 19.<\/p>\n
\u2014<\/p>\n
Luisa Morales is a sports writer with a special interest in promoting women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n
Her coverage highlights include the UAAP, PVL, Southeast Asian Games, and the FIBA World Cup. She also follows Alex Eala, the Philippine women\u2019s national football team, and mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) admitted that they felt frustrated at how things have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-344140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}