Two Filipinos boxers earn recognition

Rogen Ladon. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

FILIPINO amateur boxers Rogen Ladon and Criz Sander Laurente got recognized by the Asian Boxing Confederation  (ASBC) for their recent feats in the continental scene.

Ladon was named Asia’s Male Discovery of the Year after pocketing a silver medal in the Asian Championships held in Bangkok last August. The 22-year-old light flyweight later on bagged a bronze in the Aiba World Championship in Doha the following month.

Unfortunately, the slugger from Bago City, Negros Occidental, fell a win short of snaring a spot in the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics during the world championships.

The 15-year-old Laurente will be awarded Best Male Junior Boxer by the ASBC, the continental federation for boxing.

Ed Picson, executive director of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (Abap), said ASBC executive director Bagdaulet Turekhanov announced the news in an email from the ASBC headquarters in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to Abap.

One of two brothers who got discovered by Abap, Laurente brought home a silver from the Asian Junior Boxing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in June.

Abap president Ricky Vargas congratulated the two boxers along with the coaching staff and urged the entire national team to strive for excellence in future tournaments.

Laurente had a bum stomach early in the Asian juniors and had to withdraw from the finals due to dehydration. June Navarro