HAMBURG, Germany—Flyweight Dannel Maamo found himself in the same bracket with Cuban top seed Yosvany Veitia after getting drawn with Botswana’s Mahomed Otukile in the first round of eliminations in the 17th AIBA World Championship that begins Friday at the Sporthalle.
But Maamo’s clash with the African entry takes place 2 p.m. Saturday (8 p.m, Manila time).
If victorious, Maamo will have to deal with the veteran Veitia, the 2015 world championships silver medalist at fly and 2013 worlds bronze medal winner at light-fly, in the Round-of-16 after Veitia drew a bye.
Light-fly Rogen Ladon makes his debut Sunday after getting a first-round bye being the division’s No. 5 seed and meets the winner of the duel between Kazakhstan’s Zhomart Yerzhan and Michael Tello of Guatemala that takes lace during opening day.
Like Maamo, Ladon, the 2015 worlds bronze medalist, will also have to go through another top seed in Cuban Joahnys Argilagos, the defending champion, in the event he makes it to the semifinals.
The official draw, held at the Rathaus (Town Hall), a historic building of Neo-Renaissance style completed in 1897, was attended by national coach Nolito ‘Boy’ Velasco.
As soon as the draw was over, Velasco relayed the pairings to Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) and executive director Ed Picson told the fighters to focus on the task at hand.
“One fight at a time,” said Picson from Kuala Lumpur, site of the 29th Southeast Asian Games.
The ABAP and the Philippine Sports Commission joined hands in funding the trip here by Ladon and Maamo, both eager to make it to the medal podium.
In the history of the worlds, only three Filipinos, including Ladon, have won medals in the biennial slugfest.
Roel Velasco and Harry Tanamor were silver medalists in 1997 (Budapest) and 2007 (Chicago). Ladon got his bronze two years ago in Doha.