THANYABURI, Thailand — The Philippine boxing team got off to a perfect start with Joel Bacho scoring a sensational 3-1 win over World Series of Boxing (WSB) and AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) veteran Arisnoidys Despaigne of Cuba in the opening of the King’s Cup Boxing Tournament Tuesday at the Queen Sirikit Sports Complex here.
Given a slim chance to beat the Cuban fighter, Bacho caught the 2013 World Championship silver medalist by surprise with a barrage of power-packed punches early in the fight on the way to registering the worthiest win in their welterweight division.
It was Bacho’s biggest win after fighting mostly in the shadow of 2015 SEAG winner Eumir Felix Marcial.
Marcial, fighting for the first time as a middleweight (75 kilos), also had a smashing technical knockout (TKO) victory over Japan’s Ren Umemura.
Also scoring smashing wins were James Palicte, Carlo Paalam, Ian Clark Bautista and Mario Fernandez.
Palicte showed he’s ripe for the big time with TKO victory over Australian Patrick McLaughlin.
Scoring unanimous 5-0 decisions were Paalam over Australian Alex Winwood, Bautista against Korean Juhyeon Chloe and Fernandez over Indian Hussam Uddin Mohammed. (mb)