Gabuco targets boxing gold vs Chinese

QINHUANGDAO, China—Josie Gabuco of the PLDT-Abap National Team again relied on her veteran smarts as she stunned Russian Svetlana Gnevanova in the Aiba World Women’s Boxing Championships at the Olympic Sports Center here, setting up a finals showdown with hometown lass Xu Shiqi of China.

Xu eliminated World No. 1 Lynsey Holdaway of Wales and South Korea’s Kim Myun on the way to the semifinals.

Gabuco, 25, who has been in the national team for nine years and has won two SEA Games gold medals and a World Championship bronze in 2008, among others, trailed 0-2 in the first round.

But in the ensuing rounds, the single mother of one from Puerto Princesa City settled down and poured it on with cracking hooks, straights and uppercuts that stunned Gnevanova, the current European champion.

She caught up with the Russian in the second at 4-4, took the lead in the third at 8-5 and had a comfortable 12-7 edge at the final bell.

“I studied her style,” said a breathless Gabuco in Filipino after the match. “She’s a quick southpaw but I figured I was faster. So I initiated the exchanges, then varied my attack to confuse her.”

“It’s going to be tougher tomorrow because there is a big hometown crowd to support my finals opponent. But I am ready,” said Gabuco.

Team manager and Aiba International technical official Karina Picson expects Gabuco to lay everything on the line in the finals.

“She’ll give it her all,” she said in the company of boxers Nesthy Petecio and Alice Kate Aparri, coaches Elias Recaido Jr. and Mitchel Martinez, and Abap executive director Ed Picson.