MARK LESTER DURENS scored a lopsided victory and Junmilardo Ogayre booked a convincing win as the Filipino boxers booked semifinal-round seats in the Asian Boxing Confederation Asias Elite Men and Women Boxing Championships on Tuesday at the Le Meridien Hotel bubble in Dubai.
Durens beat Kuwait’s Mansour Khalefah via referee stopped contest (RSC) in the first round to barge to the light flyweight semifinals along with Ogayre, who scored a 5-0 victory over Sri Lanka’s Rukmal Prasanna in a bantamweight clash.
Durens and Ogayre are already guaranteed of a bronze medal each.
“All I am thinking about is my dream to be an accomplished national boxer. I just did my duty inside the ring, I didn’t hesitate,” said Durens, a promising 20-year-old ug from Cagayan De Oro City.
A victory over Kazakhstan’s Daniyal Sabit on Friday will send Durens in the gold medal round. Sabit won, 5-0, over Indonesian Kornelis Kwangu Langu in their quarterfinal bout.
Durens delivered a solid jab and a finishing right straight to his Kuwaiti foe, forcing referee Dr. Beki Piroska of Hungary to stop the fight after seeing the helpless Khalefah wobbly and dizzy.
“It’s going to be a grueling fight like [Manny] Pacquiao-[Juan Manuel] Marquez,” said Durens of his semifinals bout against Sabit.
Ogayre will meet Uzbekistan’s Mirazizbek Mirzahalillov, who beat India’s Mohammad Hussam Uddin, 3-2, in the semifinal round.
“I am so thankful to God for giving our boxers the strength to perform very well in this tournament,” Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (Abap) head coach Roel Velasco said.
Light welterweight John Paul Panuayan and women’s lightweight Maricel dela Torre yielded on Tuesday.
Panuayan couldn’t sustain an early hot start and succumbed to RSC loss to Olympian Bakhodur Usmonov of Tajikistan in the third round of their quarterfinal duel.
Torre, on the other hand, suffered a unanimous decision loss to Indonesian Huswatun Hasanah also in the quarterfinals.