GRUDGE MATCH

Harry Tanamor

AMID freezing weather, the Philippines’ Harry Tanamor arrived in Beijing Saturday and will go up against an old nemesis – 2008 Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming of China – in the 48-kilogram class in the two-day “Champion of Champions” boxing tournament.

Tanamor, 32, will be hard-pressed to work up a sweat in below-zero temperature battling the 28-year-old Zou, who beat the Filipino Olympian in the final of the 2007 World Boxing Championship in Chicago.

Zou would give his country its first boxing gold medal in the Beijing Summer Olympics the following year after his opponent in the light flyweight final, Mongolian Pürevdorjiin Serdamba, retired from a shoulder injury. Tanamor, on the other hand, lost to Ghana's Manyo Plange in the Round of 32, ending the Philippines' Olympic gold medal dream.

“The winner in this invitational tournament gets to fight for the gold medal,” said Ed Picson, executive director of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines, who flies to Beijing today with ABAP secretary-general Patrick Gregorio.

Tañamor, rated No. 7 in Asia, wasn’t in the original cast of participants in Beijing, said Picson, but was invited as a late replacement for an unidentified fighter who was hurt in training.

Accompanying Tanamor, who is fighting to stay in the national team, were coach Elmer Pamisa and referee-judge Tito Dacuma. Beijing organizers are providing the airfare, board and lodging of a three-man group for the meet, which will bring in the top four Asian fighters in selected weight categories.