RP boxers shown exit door, settle for bronze in King’s Cup

The three-man Philippine boxing team will bring home two bronze medals as their 32nd King’s Cup campaign ended Thursday. Flyweight Victorio Saludar and light flyweight Crisanto Godaren failed to advance in the gold-medal match after losing to their Thai foes while featherweight Jhergigs Chavez suffered a 4-3 defeat in his quarterfinal bout against Korean Jo-min Jae. Saludar put up a good fight against Thai Amnat Ruengroeng to force a 3-3 tally after four rounds. Saludar, however, lost the match after the countback resulted to an 11-10 count in favor of Ruengroeng, who is a quarterfinalist in the Milan World Championships and Beijing Olympics. Among the three boxers, Godaren’s loss against Thai Kaoe Prongprayoon was a controversial one after dropping the match despite getting hit by a low blow in the last minute of the third round. Godaren lost via a referee-stopped contest failing to stand after being counted by the referee. “It was very clear that a low blow hit our boxer, but the Hungarian ref saw it otherwise,’’ said head of delegation and Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) vice president Manny Lopez. Prongprayoon is the same boxer who beat Harry Tañamor in the Laos SEA Games last December. – GMANews.TV