INCHEON, South Korea—Olympian Mark Anthony Barriga got past a raging bull of an opponent from Kazakhstan and Mario Fernandez took care of a cocky foe from India to reach the men’s boxing semifinals in the 17th Asian Games on Tuesday.
Barriga danced and punched his way around Hasanboy Dusmatov for a 2-1 victory in the light-flyweight class, while Fernandez put away Shiva Thapa, 3-0, to secure not only bronze medals but shots at the gold medal in the semifinals on Thursday.
But Barriga will have to summon all his skills on the ring and pray doubly hard to the boxing gods as he is schedule to take on South Korea’s Shin Jong-hun in the semifinals of the boxing competitions at the Seohak Gymnasium. Shin was an easy 3-0 winner over India’s Devendro Singh Laishram also on Tuesday.
Charly Suarez has also advanced to the semifinals in the men’s lightweight, while middleweight Wilfredo Lopez aimed to join his teammates in the next round when he fought Shinebayar Narmandakh of Mongolia late Tuesday.
Fernandez was accurate and crisp with his blows in scoring the lopsided win over the cocky Thapa, who unleashed combinations that merely grazed Fernandez’s head and shoulders.
The 21-year-old Fernandez, the reigning Southeast Asian Games champion, landed his punches where he wanted them to be to set up a date with Zhang Jiawei of China in the next round.
Thapa, 20 and the Asian championships bantamweight gold medalist in Amman, Jordan, last year, often put his guard down in luring Fernandez. The Filipino, however, was simply too smart in falling into the trap and turned the Indian’s face into a target each time he ducked away.
Zhang, 25 and a silver medalist in the same division in Guangzhou in 2014, was also a 3-0 winner over Omurbek Malabekov of Uzbekistan. Kairat Yeraliyev of Kazakhstan faces Ham Sang-myeong of South Korea in the other semifinals.
The 26-year-old Suarez, 26, the most veteran in the group who who has fully recovered from four shoulder operations since last year, booted out Ammar Jabbar Hasan of Iraq last Monday and advanced against Obada Mohammad Mustafa Alkabesh of Jordan, who eliminated Han Soon-chul of South Korea.