By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Riza Pasuit and Ronald Chavez Jr. pulled off contrasting victories to advance to the next round in their respective weight classes at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England on Saturday, Sept. 6.
Pasuit, who won a silver in the 2023 Cambodia Southeast Asian Games, overpowered Pagad Alnaimi of Saudi Arabia on the way to a second-round referee-stopped-contest victory to barge into the Round of 16 of the women’s 60kg division.
Her victory set her up a meeting with Brazil’s Rebeca De Lima Santos, who drew an opening round bye.
Chavez, meanwhile, needed every ounce of firepower he could get to survive Ireland’s Matthew McCole with a split 3-2 decision to also book a spot in the Round of 16 of the men’s 70kg class.
Judges from Egypt, Brazil and Bulgaria gave Chavez a slim 29-28, while judges from Japan and the United States favored the Irish fighter by giving a similar 29-28 score.
With the triumph, the 26-year-old Chavez, whose father Ronald Sr. and uncle Arlo were Olympians, arranged a meeting against France’s Makan Traore, who crushed Chinese Taipei’s Kan Chia-Wei via unanimous 5-0 decision.
However, Team Philippine suffered its first casualty after Junmilardo Ogayre bowed to Kazakhstan’s Biibars Zhexen via a 5-0 unanimous decision in the Round of 32 of the men’s 60kg class.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Carlo Paalam, Mark Ashley Fajardo and Jay Bryan Baricuatro are battling in their respective weight divisions at press time.
Paalam is tackling Dominican Republic’s Junior Alcantara in the men’s 55kg, Fajardo is fighting Ukraine’s Elvin Aliiev in the men’s 65kg, and Baricuatro competes in the men’s 50kg.
