By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Two aspiring Filipino boxers suffered disappointing losses in their bid for a fresh start amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reck Dulay and Rey Perez waited for more than three months to finally put their training to the test only to fall to their respective opponents.
Dulay hit the canvass in three excruciating rounds while Perez could not withstand the man-handling by his opponent and lost in just one.
Dulay accepted the bout with only a week’s notice with his unpreparedness punished by Cuban rising star Leduan Barthelemy in their featherweight showdown.
The Cuban southpaw overwhelmed Dulay with massive right hooks from the head down to the mid-section which proved to be the finishing touches in their fight after the referee halted it at 2:31 of the third round.
Meanwhile, Perez took brutal combinations early in the first round that put him to sleep with 2 minutes and 19 seconds heading into the bout.
Perez lost at the hands of former 2016 Rio Olympian Batyr Akhmedov who now stands with 8 wins, 1 loss, and 7 knockouts.
Perez had his second straight loss and currently has a record of 24 wins, 12 losses, and 8 knockouts.
Meanwhile, Dulay’s loss registered him his sixth straight loss that slid him down to 11 wins, 9 losses, and 8 knockouts.
