NAYPYITAW—Precious Ocaya reduced her rival to a virtual punching bag to grab a gold medal in muay to ease the pain of a hometown decision suffered by Philip Delarmino in the 27th Southeast Asian Games here.
Ferocious right from the opening bell, Ocaya pummeled Phithsaya Phoumchanch of Laos without letup and easily got the nod of the judges for the women’s 54 kg title.
A series of punches from the 25-year-old from Nagcarlan, Laguna, late in the third round doomed Phoumchanch as Ocaya went on to duplicate her 2009 feat in Laos.
“I was aggressive than her. I want to knock her down but I couldn’t,” said Ocaya.
Delarmino, a mixed martial arts fighter, was just as dominant, unleashing a stream of head kicks and a straight that floored Myanmar’s Saw Dar Pot four times in their men’s 54 kg duel.
Despite the beating, the judges awarded the gold to Pot to the cheers of a pro-Burmese crowd at Wunna Theikdi Stadium here.
“He’s sturdy. I was surprised that he got up from all those blows,” said Delarmino, a SEA Games rookie but a seasoned fighter in the URCC.
“We really expected an unfavorable decision so the strategy was to knock him out,” added the warrior from Dumangas, Iloilo.
Delarmino sent his Burmese rival to the canvass thrice in the first round and floored Pot again in the second. Still the judges favored Pot.
“I may have not worn the gold around my neck but I know that I won that match,” Delarmino later said.
Jonathan Polosan also failed to knock out Thailand’s Panupong Panjad in the men’s 63.5 kg and ended up with a silver.