YOUNG gun Jere Samuel Era de la Cruz hurdled Sri Lanka’s Jeewantha Wimukthi on Monday night to advance to the men’s lightweight quarterfinals of the Asian Boxing Confederation Asian Elite Men and Women Boxing Championships on Tuesday at the Le Meridien Hotel in Dubai.
The 20-year-old De la Cruz made his townmates in Murcia in Negros Occidental proud as he aggressively counterpunched his way to a 4-1 victory on opening day of the tournament that gathered 150 boxers from 17 countries.
“It was my first time to step on a boxing ring since 2019. We only had a few training equipment before we got here, no [punching] bag, other training stuff,” De la Cruz told BusinessMirror on Tuesday. “But I was determined to win for my family and for my country and I kept my spirits alive during the match.”
The national boxers settled for virtual and individual training from their respective homes during the Covid-19 pandemic. They only got together for team training early this year at the Inspire Sports Institute in Calamba.
“I want to compete in the Vietnam SEA [Southeast Asian] Games that’s why winning here is important,” said Dela Cruz, a national team member for two years. He won the gold in the China-Asean Boxing Championships in Guangxi in November 2019.
Up next for De la Cruz is India’s Varinder Singh on Tuesday.
Light welterweight John Panuayan also had little problem disposing of local bet Majid Alnaqbi, scoring a unanimous 5-0 win to advance to the men’s quarterfinals against Tajikistan’s Bakhodur Usmonov on Tuesday.
But flyweight Marvin Tabamo lost, 2-3, to Afghanistan’s Ramish Rahmani for a 2-1 won-lost performance for Team Philippines.
“I was really surprised with the way Jere [Dela Cruz] and John Paul [Panauyan] fought,” Head Coach Roel Velasco said. “They weren’t cocky in training, but they unleashed what they learned from their training.”
Top seed Eumir Felix Marcial climbs the ring against Mongolian Otgonbaatar Byamba-Erdene in the men’s middleweight quarterfinals on Wednesday. Byamba-Erdene is coming off a 4-1 victory over Iraqi Ridha Talib Jabbar also on Monday.
Light flyweight Mark Lester Durens faced Kuwait’s Mansour Khalefah in a quarterfinal match, and Junmilardo Ogayre collided with Rukmal Prusanna in a men’s bantamweight quarterfinals clash on Tuesday night.