MANILA, Philippines – Eumir Marcial kept his dominant run going, crushing India’s Ashish Kumar in a duel of Olympic-bound fighters, 4-1, to storm into the middleweight finals of the Asian/Oceanian Qualification tournament in Amman, Jordan late Tuesday.
Riding on the momentum of his explosive RSC (referee-stopped-contest) win over Mongolian Byamba-Erdene Otgonbaatar in the quarterfinals that assured himself of a coveted berth in this year’s Tokyo Olympics, Marcial dominated the Indian champ with his power punches, superb footwork and overall fighting style to fashion out another lopsided win that lined him up for a crack at the gold medal.
The 24-year-old champ from Zamboanga, who whipped Aussie Kirra Ruston, 5-0, in the prelims, is slugging it out with Kazakh Abilkhan Amankul at presstime.
Marcial is seeking to complete what he had failed to achieve in the AIBA World Championship in Russia last year where local star Gleb Bakshi pounded out a unanimous decision win over the Filipino to clinch the gold.
Marcial was then looking to become the first Pinoy to win a World Championship gold since its inception in 1974 but thus ended up the third Filipino to settle for silver after Roel Velasco in 1997 and Harry Tañamor in 2007.
At presstime, Carlo Paalam is also fighting for a ticket to Tokyo against Saken Bibossinov, also of Kazakhtan, in a flyweight boxoff.
The other Filipino bets, however, fell short of their respective bids, including world featherweight champion Nesthy Petecio, who dropped a stinging 1-4 loss to Japanese Sena Irie in the quarterfinals.