Friday, September 12, 2008 Tipon wants more Negros pugs in nat'l pool By Henry c. Villalva
"I TRULY believe Negros can produce more fresh young amateur boxers who can qualify to the national training pool," said 15th Asian Games bantamweight gold medallist Joan Tipon of Barangay Banago, Bacolod City.
Tipon reacted to reports that the Negros Amateur Boxing Association (Naba), headed by Games and Amusement Board (GAB) commissioner Juan Ramon "Monju" Guanzon, is on the verge of staging province-wide and citywide tournaments designed to discover new boxing talents.
Tipon, a former protege of Naba, told Sun.Star in a telephone interview Thursday that he is looking forward to having more Negrense talents in the national training pool.
"Gerson Nietes is doing okay here and is in fact scheduled to leave for Cuba for further training so I think it's time for us to produce more new talents there through regular competitions. We in Negros should lead in the replenishing of fresh talents in the national pool because we have the capacity to do so," Tipon stressed.
Nietes, of Barangay Granada, was drafted into the national training pool of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (Abap) together with other standouts from various parts of the country after he won a gold medal in the last Abap National Open, Youth and Wwomen's Amateur Boxing Tournament staged in Iloilo City.
Tipon, meanwhile, said he is busy training in preparation for a possible stint in the 2009 Southeast Asian Games slated in Laos where he again plans to compete in the bantamweight division after having campaigned for a while in the featherweight class.
"I feel I'm a natural bantanweight boxer and I want to fight where I'm comfortable," he added.
Naba is eyeing another partnership with the Negros Occidental Provincial Government in staging a province-wide inter-towns, inter-cities, inter-LGU age-group competition to be called the Governor's Cup this year. It is likewise slated to partner anew with Bacolod City Representative Monico O. Puentevella's Monico Golden Gloves Inter-Barangay Amateur Boxing Tournament, which was successfully launched December last year and is reportedly to be staged anew soon.
Governor Isidro Zayco assured Naba of his support for the grassroots competition when Naba officials led by vice-president (South) Oscar Bascon and treasurer Vic Tan accompanied former Naba standout and reigning WBO minimumweight champion Donnie Nietes during his courtesy call to Zayco last September 8.
