MANILA – The Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) is saddened about the sudden passing of former Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medalist Genebert Basadre.
Ed Picson, ABAP’s secretary general, confirmed Basadre’s death on Sunday night.
Basadre was 37 years old.
“He was so young and was dedicated, soft-spoken and well-liked. The news is startling, to say the least,” Picson said.
According to the information ABAP obtained, Basadre collapsed on Monday while he was at his home in Cagayan de Oro City.
Upon getting confined at the Polymedic Plaza Hospital, Basadre somehow got better by Tuesday, but he suddenly fell to a coma afterward.
Basadre was declared dead earlier Sunday.
He was among ABAP’s prime fighters during the 2000’s.
The welterweight won bronze medals in world ranking events in Europe from 2002 to 2003.
Basadre’s big breakthrough came in 2005 when he won it all in the SEA Games in Bacolod City.
The following year, he captured a silver in the Tammer Cup in Tampere, Finland and a bronze in the Asian Games in Doha.
His last hurrah came in 2009 when he won a silver in the King’s Cup in Thailand.Despite what looks like a solid amateur resume that would have made him a bright pro boxing prospect, Basadre retired from the game at the turn of the decade and focused fully with the Philippine Army, although he would still coach Cagayan de Oro-based pugilists at times.