Host South Sulawesi's boxers grab four semifinal places
JAKARTA (JP): Host South Sulawesi team secured four semifinal places at the Golden Glove amateur boxing championships in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi as national leading boxers continued their winning ways.
Welterweight Audy Runtupalit paved his way to a potential final bout against favorite Aswin Cabui on Monday after he earned a point decision victory over Dedy Mikaso of West Java. Fighting before a fanatic home crowd, Audy took the initiative since the opening bell and, despite the fact that he was not in his top form, there was no doubt that he dominated the four-round bout.
Audy will now face Joko Suryono of Central Java who stopped Otong Kosasih of Yogyakarta in the second round of their one- sided match for a technical-knockout win.
President Cup gold medalist Aswin, who was axed from the national team for the Asian Games recently, got a bye and directly reaches the semifinal against his national training camp colleague Ivan Pioh.
Pinweight Johanes Atbar also delighted his fans by outpointing Pinten of Central Kalimantan for a semifinal berth. Other two home pugilists, flyweight Johny Muis and bantamweight Abdi Amahoru, also marched into the last four round with point decision victories.
North Sulawesi's ace in the lightweight division Serdy Pangandaeng stole the show on Monday as he knocked out Denny Yerisetouw of Maluku to reach the semifinals.
Serdi, who is joining the centralized training camp, was obviously a gong-to-gong fighter. Demonstrating his well- connected one-two combinations, Serdi forced Denny to give up in the third round following a straight landed on his jaw. Even when the referee finished his counts, Deddy could not regain his feet.
Disappointing
Other national top boxer Herry Makawimbang of West Java, who will join Aswin on the sidelines during the upcoming Asian Games, disappointed the crowd with his hit-and-clinch of play against Hengky Tobias of East Kalimantan. The boring fight ended with lackluster Herry outpointing his unheralded opponent.
President Cup's best boxer Nemo Bahari will meet Rico Maspaitella of Jakarta in their highly awaited featherweight semifinal bout tomorrow. Rico knocked out Asep Badru of West Java five seconds after the opening bell on Sunday to reach the semifinals.
Nemo's elder brother Pino will set up a semifinal middleweight clash against Marcel Tambas of North Sulawesi tomorrow. If Asian Games gold medalist Pino wins, he will box Albert Papilaya, the man who will likely oust him to the light heavyweight competition in Hiroshima's Asian Games in October.
Meanwhile, the national amateur boxing association (Pertina) will start applying the ranking system in October. Pertina has planned to issue the national rankings twice a year on April 1 and Oct. 1.
The rankings will be based on performances of pugilists in each national boxing meet sanctioned by Pertina. Top boxers will be granted the first seeds in the tournaments they take part in.
"The new system is aimed at boosting the performances of our boxers, mainly because we want to shine at the 1996 Olympics and the 2002 Asian Games," Pertina secretary general Didiet Soedijoto was quoted by Antara news agency as saying. (amd)