IT was a fruitful European tour for the Philippine boxing team which claimed four gold medals across two tournaments in Serbia and the Netherlands in recent weeks.
The strong performance under the guidance of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) started with the 63rd Belgrade Winner Elite Men’s and Women’s Boxing Tournament, where Clark Vicera and veteran Riza Pasuit ruled the men’s 50 kg and women’s 57 kg categories against tough opposition from May 13 to 17, 2026.
Vicera started his campaign in the preliminaries with a unanimous decision win against 2024 Youth World Boxing Championships bronze medalist Dias Berikbay of Kazakhstan.
This was followed by two more clean sweeps in the quarterfinals and semifinals against Ibrahim Aljohani of Saudi Arabia and Nurzat Ongarov of Kazakhstan before he claimed the gold with a masterful 4-1 split decision victory over Salih Samet Oruc of Türkiye.
Pasuit, on the other hand, started her campaign in the quarterfinals, but it was clear from the start that her opponents were no match for her. She did not lose a single scorecard throughout her campaign, earning unanimous decision wins against Victoria Vergos of Canada, Areti Stergiou of Greece, and Ece Asude Ediz of Türkiye in the gold medal match.
Paul Julyfer Bascon added a bronze medal to the Philippines’ haul in the men’s 60-kg division.
A few days later, the team traveled to the Netherlands, where Vicera was once again unstoppable in the Eindhoven Box Cup.
Vicera took home the gold medal by beating Sameer Ardawan of Belgium in the semifinals and Ruslan Bednychenko of Ukraine in the finals, both via unanimous decision. It was by no means an easy win for the young Vicera, as he lost the first round 5-0 to the bigger opponent, but his coaches made the right adjustments to help him sweep the next two rounds.
2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Carlo Paalam capped the golden haul by winning the men’s 55-kg division. Paalam was unable to join the team in Serbia due to illness, but he made up for lost time with a strong effort in the Netherlands.
He started his campaign with a 5-0 win over Justin Sahin of Germany in the quarterfinals. He then figured in one of the best matches of the entire tournament, defeating Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalist Billal Bennama of France via a 4-1 split decision.
Paalam capped his run to the gold with another unanimous decision win in the finals against Abdul Burton of England.
The four boxers were joined by ABAP coaches Ronald Chavez, Elmer Pamisa, and Mario Fernandez, physical therapist David Abraham Giray, and President Marcus Manalo.
“We’re happy to bring home four gold medals from two high-caliber tournaments,” said Manalo.
“However, more than the medals, we’re really happy with the performance of our boxers. They showed skill and determination in every match, as well as their fighting spirit when things got difficult against really good opponents. This is a sign that we’re heading in the right direction as we look forward to the upcoming Asian Games in September.”
