It's the featherweight action that we're looking forward to.
Lin Yu Ting of Chinese Taipei takes on Turkey's Esra Yildiz Kahraman while our fighting pride Nesthy Petecio takes on the whimsical fighter from Poland, Julia Szeremeta.
The obvious final battle should be the third match between Lin and Nesthy. However, Aira Villegas settled for a bronze after a decisive but not lopsided loss to her compatriot, Buse Naz Cakiroglu.
In the first fight, it felt like the Turkish fighter was making turkey sounds as she rattled Lin to no avail. Lin swept the three rounds to conquer her foe. Yes, Kahraman is the busier fighter but Lin has used her height and long arms to dismantle her opponent.
Anyway...
I am going to support our Pinay pride now.
...
...
After fifteen minutes.
...
...
F*ck.
I don't know the deal with Szeremeta, but it pays to be flashy. Petecio took her down decisively in the first round, but as the announcers said, the Polish fighter brought out the dimensions of her game. Yes, she is like a demented Von Trapp family singer in the ring, but she also went toe-to-toe with Nesthy.
I thought what the referee said, threw her off. In the first round, Szeremeta wasn't as smiley but when they were throwing bombs at each other, all of a sudden it was Nesthy following Szeremeta's playbook.
That said, I thought the second and third rounds shouldn't be as one-sided.
It felt like this was Nesthy and Aira's receipt for beating the French women.
Anyway...
VILLEGAS | SEMIS MATCH | PETECIO | SEMIS MATCH | |
JUDGE 1 | BEN MCGARRIGLE | IRELAND | 27 | MUHAMMAD POHAN | INDONESIA | 29 |
JUDGE 2 | RADOSLAV SIMON | SLOVAKIA | 26 | VERONIKA SZUCS | HUNGARY | 28 |
JUDGE 3 | KIM JONG JIN | SOUTH KOREA | 27 | GEIR DAHLEN | NORWAY | 28 |
JUDGE 4 | NELKA THAMPU | SRI LANKA | 27 | NELKA THAMPU | SRI LANKA | 28 |
JUDGE 5 | MANUEL VILARINO | ARGENTINA | 26 | EMERSON ALEJANDRO PASTOR ARREAGA | GUATEMALA | 28 |
REFEREE | WADE PETERSON | CANADA | MANUEL VILARINO | ARGENTINA |
Hmmm...
The Sri Lankan judge was both in the Villegas and Petecio fights.
Also, Manuel Villarino was the judge in the Villegas fight and the referee in the Petecio fight.
Diving further, I went to check the Carlo Paalam match as well as the Eumir Marcial match.
PAALAM | QUARTERFINALS | MARCIAL | ROUND OF 16 | |
JUDGE 1 | BACHIR ABBAR | MOROCCO | 30 | BACHIR ABBAR | MOROCCO | 28 |
JUDGE 2 | SUSANN KOPKE | GERMANY | 29 | HOLGER KUSSMAUL | GERMANY | 28 |
JUDGE 3 | WADE PETERSON | CANADA | 27 | JEFFERY VERHOEVEN | CANADA | 28 |
JUDGE 4 | PIROSKA BEKI | HUNGARY | 28 | SHAWN REESE | USA | 27 |
JUDGE 5 | BEN MCGARRIGLE | IRELAND | 28 | ATARBAYAR BYAMBABAYAR | MONGOLIA | 28 |
REFEREE | SHAWN REESE | USA | LEE INNES | GREAT BRITAIN |
Hmmm...
The blue names are the ones that officiated a Pinoy match on more than two occasions. The Morrocan, Bachir Abbar, scored it fair for us. Yes, Eumir Marcial struggled in his match and yeah, he was the only judge to score the match in our favor.
Anyway, this does not discount the fact that Nesthy Petecio is still our badass boxer. Yes, boxing is still shitty, but at least it gave us two bronze medals.
But maybe I'm just salty because I thought it wasn't that big of a loss.
And now I see things on X (Twitter) about Nesthy's looks.
Hahahaha.
I am NOT amused.
Still though.