Manila, Philippines —  Boxers knocking on the door of the Philippine Olympic Committee to compete in the Asian Games need to have a knockout performance in the coming days before earning the nod of the selection committee, chief of mission Joey Romasanta said on Thursday.

“Honestly, only three (boxers) have made the (Asian Games) grade,” said Romasanta, rattling off the names of Charly Suarez and female fighter Annie Albania as the ones who are qualified based on the criteria that the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) has set.

But Romasanta conceded a few others, such as light-welterweight Delfin Boholst and light-fly Victorio Saludar, may earn the trip to the November 12 to 27 sportsfest in Guangzhou owing to their improved performance.

The two are being closely looked at by the Asian Games Task Force that is manned by officials from the POC and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).

“I feel a bit embarrassed to tell the ABAP leaders about it but what can we do?” said Romasanta, fully aware of the all-out support being given by PLDT-Smart to the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (Abap).

Romasanta said the recent tournaments that the national boxers participated in could not be considered as gauge for their inclusion.

PLDT-Smart staged the MVP Cup last July, a slugfest that failed to draw the participation of boxing bigwigs save for a few from Thailand. Instead the event lured boxers from nations that have no rich boxing history to speak of.

And only recently, the ABAP went on a tour of California where Suarez and company stamped their class in an event Romasanta described as “a club-level tournament.”

So far, 160 athletes have been cleared for inclusion to the Guangzhou Games and the number could slightly increase by the time the POC-imposed deadline of the submission of names expires on September 15.