Josie Gabuco wins gold in World Championships but PHL has only one boxer in the 2012 Olympics

Josie Gabuco gave the country its first ever World Championship boxing gold. She won light-flyweight gold medal in the 2012 AIBA Women's Boxing World Championships. Her golden effort though did not merit the country an olympic berth since her weight class is not included in the olympic line-up. With months before the 2012 London Games, the Philippines will be sending just one boxer in this years olympics.

1? Uno? Isa? Usa? From an Asian superpower, the Philippines is slowly being relegated to the bottom in amateur boxing. Can you believe it? It does not come as a surprise though as our best bets go pro early. Instead of dreaming of a gold medal, many dreamed to be the next Manny Pacquiao instead. How much does an amateur boxer even earn nowadays?

The Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines has Manny Pangilinan as its Godfather. Money is supposedly not an issue anymore. Change may not be overnight but we have losing our best amateur fighters to the pros.  Their should be a program that will develop a future boxing team ala Smart Gilas. Although, it is not good to use the Gilas as an example because its core are now in the PBA. 

The ABAP should form a team in age groups and they should be trained by the best coaches available. They can even ask Freddie Roach to do some drills. We used to have Cuban coaches, now we simply rely on our home-grown coaches.  I am not saying that we are inferior but the results are showing how we are doing against our neighbors.  Thailand is not scared of us anymore. China, India, and even Middle-Eastern teams are on the rise. We should start upgrading our training and coaching.

Maybe it would be a good idea to form a team  in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) this early. I am sure MVP can afford it. We have to expose our boxers with tough competitions all year round or else it will take us another 20 years to see another Onyok Velasco. 

Boxing maybe a very dangerous sport and it cannot even be encouraged in schools but it is still the sport that we have the biggest chance of a gold medal in the olympics. Let us just start praying that Barriga will get the gold in London to inspire our budding fighters to stay amateur. ;)

Links:
Gabuco wins Gold
Million Peso Baby
Overweight Mexican Boxers
Jaro is a world champion