Filipino middleweight Eumir Marcial’s road to an Olympic gold medal is littered with landmines.
The roster of the 75 kg class has been finalized following the conclusion of the European Olympic Qualification Tournament in Paris yesterday with Ukrainian Oleksandr Khyzniak and Russian Gleb Bakshi finishing first and second, respectively.
Khyzniak and Bakshi are no strangers to Marcial, who is also one of the favored fighters entered in the star-studded middleweight category.
Marcial, 25, has lost to both.
In his one and only clash with Khyzniak in the 2019 Strandja tournament in Bulgaria, Marcial lost by stoppage when cornerman Ronald Chavez advised that his fighter could no longer continue owing to an injured shoulder.
Later that year in October, Marcial ran into Bakshi in the gold medal bout of the World Championships in Russia.
Bakshi banked on a second-round knockdown to beat Marcial for the top honors.
Jafarov Saidjamshid, the Uzbek ring master who upset Marcial in last month’s Asian championships in Dubai, is not entered in Tokyo.
Marcial just arrived in Colorado Springs for a 21-day high-altitude training stint with handpicked Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines coach Gerson Nietes.
Nietes watched Khyzniak’s victory and was awed by the Ukrainian’s relentless style.
“He’s really a fighter and I told Eumir that if you end up facing him, you have to be in tip-top shape and also make sure you land clear punches and not be on the receiving end of exchanges,” Nietes said.
Above all, Nietes swears Marcial has to be in excellent stamina “so he can execute the fight plan.”
Sean Gibbons of MP Promotions likewise monitored the European qualifying and noted that, style-wise, he loves Marcial’s chances.
“All styles good fights (for Marcial),” Gibbons said, referring to Khyznbiak and Bakshi’s engaging styles.
Other marquee names seeing action in Tokyo are Abilkhan Amakhul of Kazakhstan, Hebert Conceicao of Brazil, Ashish Kuma of India, Arman Darchinyan of Armenia, Andrej Csemez of Slovakia and Wiliried Ntsengue of Cameroon.
Gibbons said after Colorado Springs, Marcial will return to Los Angeles where he will wait for the go-signal to fly to Tokyo.
