Irish mentor sees bright future for PH boxing

BAGO CITY—It didn’t take long for Irish coach Kevin Smith to see what’s  ahead of Philippine boxing.

All he needed was a few rounds of watching the PLDT-Abap Visayas Area Tournament held here to ascertain that there’s a lot of young Filipinos with the potential to excel in the global boxing arena.

Smith, who had coaching stints with the Scottish, British, Nigerian and Tanzanian boxing teams, showed Manila-based sportswriters the finals schedule Friday night with three names having asterisk marks.

They were gold medalists Jossa Santisteban, James Palicte and Jeffrey Bagacay, all from this city.

The 48-year-old Smith, hired by the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines, through its president Ricky Vargas, to help out in talent identification and development of a grassroots program, was particularly impressed with Santisteban, the junior girls’ pinweight (46 kg) champion in particular.

“The young female boxer, Jossa Santisesteban, she had a little bit of an X-factor,” Smith said. “James Palicte and Jeffrey Bagacay they were excellent this afternoon so I’d like to see them in a higher level.”

Palicte  bested Eleno Traya of Mandaue City to rule the youth boys’ bantam (56 kg) category while Bagacay trounced Bacolod’s Danjay Nietes for the 52 kg crown.

Smith will head home next month, but will return to help prepare the national boxers for the 2013 Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar.