Olympic bronze for Aira Villegas as Turkish foe dominates semis bout

Aira Villegas' golden bid in the Paris Games sees its end as she absorbs a unanimous decision loss to Turkey's Buse Naz Cakiroglu, a former world champion and Olympic silver medalist

MANILA, Philippines – Falling prey at the hands of a more experienced and decorated foe, Filipina boxer Aira Villegas wrapped up her Paris Olympics run with a bronze.

Villegas’ golden bid saw its end as she absorbed a unanimous decision loss to Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu in the women’s 50kg semifinals at the Roland Garros Stadium on Tuesday, August 6 (Wednesday, August 7, Manila time).

A former world champion seeking to get the job done this time after settling for silver in the Tokyo Olympics, Cakiroglu proved too much for Villegas and won convincingly by scores of 30-26, 30-26, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27.

The puzzle that Cakiroglu posed remained unsolvable for Villegas, who also lost to the Turkish by unanimous decision in the quarterfinals of the 2022 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships.

Villegas fell behind the scorecards early as Cakiroglu landed powerful and crisp shots to the head that prompted a standing count from Canadian referee Wade Peterson.

Cakiroglu continued her dominance in the second round, although she hit the canvas after being caught by a swift right hook to the head from Villegas.

Peterson, however, ruled it a slip as Cakiroglu earned the nod of all the five judges anew on the way to another smashing victory.

Cakiroglu, who will face top seed Wu Yu of China in the final, has been practically unchallenged in this Olympics, nailing all of her three bouts by unanimous decision.

Despite getting the boot, Villegas exceeded expectations in her Games debut, becoming just the Philippines’ second female boxer to win an Olympic medal after teammate Nesthy Petecio.

The pride of Tacloban City demolished both Morocco’s Yasmine Mouttaki and Algeria’s Roumaysa Boualam via unanimous decision, then hacked out a split decision win over France’s Wassila Lkhadiri to reach the semifinals.

With all but one of the five Filipino boxing bets bowing out, Petecio assumes the responsibility of winning the Philippines’ first-ever Olympic gold in the sport.

Petecio battles Poland’s Julia Szeremeta in the women’s 57kg semifinals on Wednesday, August 7 (Thursday, August 8, Manila time). – Rappler.com