Eumir Marcial wins middleweight silver medal at world championships

[UPDATED, 22 September, 10:58 am Manila time] — Middleweight Eumir Felix Marcial brought the Philippines back to the medal podium at the biennial AIBA Men’s World Boxing Championships.

His silver medal came after losing to eight-seed Gleb Bakshi of the Russian Federation via a unanimous decision in the middlweight finals held in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Marcial absorbed a knockdown in the second round after Bakshi stunned the Filipino with a left hook.

Three judges scored the bout 29-28 and two other judges gave 29-27 scores in favor of Bakshi.

Though, a gold medal at either the Olympic Games or these World Championships remains elusive for the Philippines. Nevertheless, Marcial’s feat follows up the silver won by light-flyweight Harry Tanamor in 2007 in Chicago, USA. (Tanamor actually won two other bronze medals at the World Championships: 2001 in Belfast, Ireland and 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand.)

Roegen Ladon, another light-flyweight, won the country’s last medal at these Championships given his 2015 bronze medal in Doha, Qatar.

But Marcial’s silver in Ekaterinburg is unexpected as the former welterweight’s best finish in the middleweight division was a bronze at last year’s Asian Games in Indonesia. Marcial’s long been a welterweight after a successful career in the junior ranks.

The 24-year-old Marcial, from Brgy. Lunzuran, Zamboanga City, thus becomes the Philippines’ best medal hopeful for boxing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. 

Marcial had won his first five fights prior to his silver medal feat. He first drubbed Bryan Angulo of Ecuador, 4-0, in a round-of 64 match Sept. 9. Five days later, the former AIBA World Youth Champion forced All Ali Tarik of Morocco to quit after two mins. and 12 secs. of the first round in a rd.-of-32 match.

Marcial then reached the quarterfinals after dominating Omurbek Bekzhigit Uulu of Kyrgyzstan, 5-0, in the rd.-of-16 last Sept. 16. In the quarterfinals, the unseeded Filipino assured the Philippines of a medal given another 5-0 win, this time against Asian Championships bronze medalist Mousaci Seyedshahin of Iran, last Sept. 18.

Marcial then dealt third seed and reigning Asian Champion Tursynbay Kulakhmet of Kazakhstan a 5-0 drubbing Sept. 20th to reach the gold medal match against Bakshi.

Men’s boxing at the 2020 Olympiad will now be reduced to eight weight classes. The light-flyweight division is now gone, and is a division where the Philippines had hauled medals in both the Olympic Games and the World Championships.

But given controversies surrounding the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur or AIBA, the amateur boxing program in Tokyo will be run by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Qualifying for the Tokyo Games will be through slots offered at continential qualifying tournaments, and a final world-level qualifying tournament, come the first half of 2020. This World Championships edition in Russia is not an Olympic qualifying tournament.

Carlo Paalam was the next-best Filipino finisher by reaching the quarterfinals in the flyweight division.

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About Jeremaiah Opiniano