MARCIAL BOWS TO KHYZHNIAK, SETTLES FOR BRONZE

Eumir Felix Marcial of the Philippines could withstand Oleksandr Khyzhniak's non-stop punching and lost 2-3 in their Tokyo 2020 Olympics middleweight semifinal bout at the Kokugigan Arena Thursday afternoon in Tokyo, Japan.

The fight was a question of whether Marcial's powerful bombs could stop the onslaught of the rampaging Ukrainian who, by his style of non-stop punching had a winning streak of 61 fights. Marcial had some success in the first two rounds, winning three to two from the five judges. But going to the final round, Marcial lost steam while Khyzhniak summoned deep to keep on throwing non-stop punches and snatched the round from the judges' scorecards. In the end Khyzhniak won by the smallest of margins, 29-28, 30-27, 28-29, 29-28 and 28-29.

Marcial, who has already turned professional, settles for the bronze medal. Khyzhniak, the No. 1 seed, will face Herbert Sousa of Brazil in the finals who earlier won his semifinal bout against Gleb Bhakshi of Russia.