Tipon too strong for Lucena pug;
Bacoleño beats youngest Tacuyan
BY NIDA BUENAFE

It only took 1 minute and 17 seconds in the first round for 2006 Doha Asian Games gold medalist Joan Tipon to knock down Benedict Vergara of Lucena and register his first win in the featherweight division of the 2009 National Amateur Boxing Championships yesterday at the Negros Occidental Multipurpose Activity Center.

Vergara tried to delay the inevitable by trying to get away from Tipon’s range but the Bacoleño champion attacked like the veteran ring predator that he is to deliver the power punch that brought the Lucena boxer down.

The easy victory of Tipon, however, was upstaged by the intense bout between Himamaylan City’s Fernando Tacuyan and Alvin Sibugan of Bacolod City in the junior light mosquito weight (37 – 38.5 kgs) as both fighters threw a barrage of punches at each other as soon as the bell rang in the first round.