Philippines at the Kazakhstan President's Cup 2017

Philippines has shown its might again in the ring as it captured lone gold medal courtesy of Carlo Paalam at the 2017 Kazakhstan President's Cup held in the capital city. 

The boxing tournament which was held from June 5 to June 10 was dominated by the host pugilists as they win all the weight categories in the men's and women's divisions except in the men's light flyweight category won by Philippines' Paalam. The only boxer who spoiled Kazakhstan's supremacy in the ring. 

Philippines' Carlo Paalam was a bronze medalist in the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in St. Petersburg and also in the ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championships in Pavlodar one year ago. He defeated Kazakhstan's Ashkhat Zhussupov in the finals to claim the gold medal.

In the men's bantamweight (56kg) class, Philippines' defending Southeast Asian Games winner Mario Fernandez produced superb performance in the road to the finals. He knocked out Korea's ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championships bronze medalist Han Young Hun in the quarter-final and defeated also Kazakhstan's Zhanbolat Kydyrbayev in the semi-final. He met Kazakhstan's Incheon 2014 Asian Games winner Ilyas Suleimenov but he was not enough to get the victory for the Philippines. Fernandez settled for silver medal. 

Meanwhile, another Filipino boxer Nesthy Petecio settled for bronze medal in the women's lightweight (60kg) category. She vowed to Kazakhstan's Rimma Volosenko in a close fight semi-finals.

The other countries who participated in this boxing tournament were powerhouses Uzbekistan, Russia, India and Korea. 

Boxing is listed in the SEA Games 2017 program and it is a good sign for team Philippines to regain the overall champion for boxing.

Also, Philippines' Puerto Princesa City will be the host of the ASBC Asian Confederation Junior Boxing Championships to be held in August 1 to 7 this year.