JAKARTA - The campaign of the Philippines boxing team in the 2018 Asian Games got off to a rough start as Joel Bacho and Nesthy Petecio both suffered losses in their opening matches.
Bacho was the first boxer to see action for the country, competing in the men's welterweight division (69kg), against Iran's Sajjad Kazemzadeh Poshtiri. From the opening bell it was obvious that Kazemzadeh wanted to brawl as he carelessly charged into Bacho's defense, eating heavy leather along the way.
The Filipino fighter did well in the first round as he boxed from the outside, landing the cleaner punches. However, Bacho could not sustain it as he was drawn to an all-out war in the second round with both fighters swinging for the fences. Kazemzadeh's stamina did not diminish but Bacho slowed down a little bit, even suffering a small cut on his left brow.
The third round was similar to the second as the Iranian simply threw and connected more punches. Four of the judges scored the fight for Kazemzadeh while only one favored Bacho. Kazemzadeh won via split decision, 4-1, winning 30-27 and 29-28 thrice while one judge had it 28-29 for Bacho.
"We concede that one as we thought Joel fought his opponent's fight," said Amateur Boxing of the Philippines Executive Director Ed Picson. "He should have boxed his opponent but he didn't."
Petecio was unlucky with the draw as she had to open her 2018 Asian Games campaign against Yin Junhua of China who was the silver medalist in the 2016 Rio Olympics and also the top-ranked fighter in the competition. The Chinese is naturally the bigger woman as she usually competes in the 60kg category while Petecio is the second-ranked fighter in the world in the 51-54kg category.
However, even with the long odds, Petecio fought confidently, owing to the fact that she already has a win against Yin in Russia three months ago. She moved well and frustrated the Chinese fighter who had to resort to rough tactics throughout the match.
Petecio landed the best punch of the match, which was an overhand right, the same punch she used to score a knockdown versus Yin in their last match. China's best was deducted a point in the second round for excessive holding, which gave the Filipino fans, including Asian Games gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz, more reason to believe that Yin was ripe for the picking.
However, it was not meant to be as the fight was ruled for Yin via split decision (2-2-1). Judges from Korea and Bulgaria scored it a shutout against Petecio (27-29 twice) while judges from Japan (30-26) and Turkmenistan (29-27) saw the fight for the Filipina. The French judge ruled it a draw at 28-28 after deducting a point from the Chinese but scoring two rounds for her against only one for Petecio.
"I knew I won," said a dejected Petecio. "When they announced the result, I didn't want to leave the ring because I didn't want to accept that was the end. I knew that if I defeated her, I'll get the gold because she's the only tough opponent in the field. I trained so hard for this."
"This is why we tell our fighters not just to win but to dominate," said Picson. "You never know what will happen in the scorecards."