Norlan Petecio ran into arguably the toughest possible foe in his weight division and could not keep pace with the highly decorated opponent.
The 24-year-old Petecio had no answer for the more experienced Sewon Okazawa, losing via unanimous decision in their quarterfinal clash in the men’s 70kg division of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Thursday at the Nishio Gymnasium in Nishio City.
Petecio was coming off an impressive unanimous decision victory over Cambodia’s Vy Sophors in the preliminary round. But he soon discovered that Okazawa — who won light middleweight gold at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games — was on another level.
The Ghanaian-Japanese boxer, a silver medalist at the 2025 World Championships and a gold medalist in the welterweight division at the 2021 World Championships, displayed his superiority throughout the bout.
Okazawa shut out Petecio in the first two rounds, earning 10-9 scores from all five judges in each round. The third round was even more convincing, with one judge awarding Okazawa a 10-8 score while the other four again scored it 10-9 in his favor.
With Petecio’s exit, the Philippine boxing team is now down to four fighters, with the younger Petecio joining Paris Olympic bronze medalist Aira Villegas on the sidelines.
The Philippines is seeking to improve on its performance at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, where Eumir Marcial was the country’s lone boxing medalist after taking silver in the light heavyweight division.
