Irish Magno’s Olympic debut came to a close as Jutamas Jitpong of Thailand took a unanimous decision defeat in the Round of 16 bout in the 2020 Olympic Women’s Flyweight Boxing tournament at the Kokugikan Arena, Thursday.
The two fighters last met in the semifinals of the 30th Southeast Asian Games. There, Magno took down Jitpong for a place in the gold medal bout.
The two also trained together in Thailand during the build-up to the games as noted by the Hit List’s Nissi Icasiano.
“Nakalaban ko na siya dati, at napag-aralan na niya kami. Sa akin, ‘yun ‘yung mahirap,” Magno told One Sports’ Paolo Del Rosario.
Their familiarity resulted in the calculated start to the match while both fighters tried to sneak in some punches. With clean punches connecting near the end of the first round, the Thai then took the lead.
Magno, knowing she missed on the opening round, went on a barrage of attacks, catching the Thai’s defense off-guard a few times. Nonetheless, Jitpong connected on her counter punches and eventually got the second round as well.
From there, Jitpong took care of the rest in the final. Magno could not get enough punches to land to overturn the results.
Magno leaves two remaining boxers in contention for an Olympic medal with men’s middleweight Eumir Marcial and men’s flyweight Carlo Paalam.
Meanwhile, women’s featherweight Nesthy Petecio has assured herself of a medal after making the semifinals.
“Yung pagkatalo ko, hindi ibig sabihin pagkatalo ito ng buong team. Sa akin, lesson ito. Magpupursige pa rin ako,” said Magno.
