JOSIE GABUCO will be bringing her veteran smarts to Dubai when she defends the light flyweight gold medal in the Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC) Asian Elite Men and Women Boxing Championships.
Gabuco and the rest of the national boxers attending the Dubai slugfest didn’t have the luxury of a boxing ring and punching bags at the Teachers’ Camp training facility in Baguio City where they were based for the past month.
But for Gabuco, “no ring, no bags, no problem.”
“We trained on the track oval without a boxing ring and punching bags since we arrived here in Baguio City last month,” the 34-year-old single mom told the BusinessMirror on Thursday. “It’s more on running, mitts training under my coaches, and rotational sparring. No gym.”
Other athletes, even the successful ones, could already be ranting about the absence of adequate training equipment. But not Gabuco, owner of five Southeast Asian Games gold medals.
“It’s okay for me, maybe there’s a reason behind it,” the pride of Puerto Princesa City said. “I don’t complain about my situation, life goes on, I just keep training with whatever we have here.”
“My focus is to defend my title,” said Gabuco, who hasn’t seen his son, 14-year-old Mack Joseph, since February. “I always trust my coaches.”
Gabuco was also at the Inspire Sports Institute bubble earlier this year in Calamba where she helped train Tokyo Olympics-bound Eumir Felix Marcial, Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam and Irish Magno. She got to play some basketball while inside the bubble.
The Dubai tournament will formally open on Friday and end on June 1. The International Amateur Boxing Association offered cash incentives of $10,000 for a gold medal, $5,000 for a silver and $2,500 for a bronze.
But for Gabuco, nothing is comparable to a gold medal hanging from her neck.
“They put a prize money now, but that doesn’t matter to me,” she said. “What matters is that I again will bring home the gold medal to our country. It’s our pride that matters.”
Too bad for Gabuco, her light flyweight class is not on the Olympic program, although the gold she won in the 2019 edition of the tournament earned her a P500,000 incentive from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).
“I’m very grateful for the incentive, thank you PSC,” she said.
Marcial is also competing in Dubai to test his readiness for the games that are set from July 23 to August 8. He hasn’t fought in an amateur contest since the Amman (Jordan) qualifiers in February last year, but debuted as a professional in a four-rounder in Los Angeles last December.
Also competing in Dubai are lightweight Maricel dela Torre, flyweight Marvin Tabamo, light flyweight Mark Lester Durens, bantamweight Junmilardo Ogayre, lightweight Jere Samuel dela Cruz and light welterweight John Panuayan.
The team will take an Emirates flight from Clark on Friday.