3 Pinoy boxers get semis slot in Asian U22 Championships

The ASBC Asian U22 Boxing Championships in Bangkok, Thailand, saw three Filipino boxers advance to the semifinals, guaranteeing themselves at least bronze medals.

In this week-long brawl, Mark Lester Durens, Aaron Jude Bado, and Jericho Acaylar defeated their opponents to get one step closer to dominating their respective weight classes.

In the men's minimumweight (48 kg) class, Durens, a bronze medalist at the 2021 ASBC Elite Men's Boxing Championship in Dubai, dominated Nepal's Prasad Upreti Lal via unanimous decision, 5-0. 

In the men's flyweight (51 kg) class, Bado followed suit with a 5-0 demolition of Sri Lanka's Pasindu Umayanga Mihiran.

In the men's featherweight division, Acaylar defeated Indonesia's Asri Udin 4-1 to go to the last four (57 kg).

Durens' victory put him in a semifinal matchup with Shodiyorjon Melikuziev of Uzbekistan, who defeated Gou Guang Shuai of China.

While Acaylar will play Kazakhstan's Makhmud Sabyrkhan, who defeated Malaysia's Muhamad Azri Alif Akmal in a Round 2 referee-stop contest (RSC), Bado will take on Malaysia's Qaiyum Ariffin, who narrowly defeated Mongolia's Davaadorj Lkhagvadorj by a score of 2-0.