Tokyo Olympics-bound Eumir Marcial and three other Filipino fighters assured themselves of bronze-medal finishes in the ongoing Asian Boxing Confederation Elite Men’s and Women’s Boxing Championships in Dubai.
The 25-year-old Marcial won by default over no-show Mongolia’s Byamba-Erdene Otgonbaatar, who suffered an injury in the opening round Monday.
Marcial, who recently turned professional, advanced to the semifinals of the middleweight (75 kgs) division against Uzbekistan’s Said Jamshid Jafarov, who earlier blanked Kyrgyzstan’s Omurbek Bekzhigit Uulu, 5-0.
Twenty-year-old Mark Lester Durens (49kg), who is from Misamis Oriental, and Junmilardo Ogayre (56kg), also made it to the semis, along with five-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Josie Gabuco.
Durens used his aggressive attacks to stun Kuwait’s Mansour Khalefah, and prevail via a referee-stopped contest decision in Round 1.
Ogayre dominated his fight with Rukmal Prassana of Sri Lanka, 5-0, the other day, to reach the bantamweight semis.
Gabuco assured herself of a podium finish after getting a bye in the quarterfinals of the women’s light-flyweight division.
In another featured 75kg encounter, Kazakhstan’s AIBA World Boxing Championship silver medallist Abilkhan Amankul had a difficult time with India’s Ashish Kumar but still won a close contest, 3-2.
Amankul is set to meet Iran’s Seyed Shahin Mousavi, who eliminated Tajikistan’s 20-year-old Abdumalik Boltayev, 5-0.
Earlier, lightweight Jere dela Cruz bowed out of contention after losing to India’s Varinder Singh in the quarterfinals, 5-0.
Dela Cruz was the fourth Filipino boxer to be eliminated, following his loss in the preliminaries of the 60kg (lightweight) class last Monday.