FILIPINO middleweight Eumir Marcial had a strong start to his 2020 Tokyo Olympics campaign with an impressive first round stoppage of Algerian Younes Nemouchi in the Round of 16 of the Men’s Middleweight division on Thursday, July 29, 2021 at the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
The 25-year-old Marcial, who trains under the tutelage of Freddie Roach, lived up to his billing and demolished Nemouchi in the 2:41 mark of the opening round.
Marcial landed some heavy combinations to the head and body of Nemouchi. He finally dropped Nemouchi with a right hook with two minutes left in the round. Nemouchi was quick to stand and beat the count of referee Simon Radoslav.
Marcial was very aggressive with his attack and landed some solid punches. Nemouchi suffered a huge gash above his right eye after an apparent accidental clash of heads.
Radoslav had the cut checked by the ring physician, which allowed Nemouchi to continue.
Nemouchi continued to get tagged by Marcial with some vicious blows. Radoslav had Nemouchi’s cut checked by the ring physician again after blood was gushing down on his face. This time, the ring physician advised Radoslav to stop the fight.
Marcial, the silver medalist in the 2019 AIBA World Boxing Championships, advances to the quarterfinals and faces Armenian Arman Darchinyan on Aug. 1, 2021.
Darchinyan advanced to the quarterfinals after beating Slovakian Andrej Csemez, 5-0, on points.
Darchinyan is the nephew of former world champion Vic Darchinyan. He finished fifth in the World Championships in 2019.
On the other hand, Irish Magno was not as fortunate as she dropped out of the Olympics after losing to her Thai nemesis Jutamas Jitpong, 5-0, by points in the Round of 16 of the Women’s Flyweight division.
Jitpong exacted her revenge on Magno by outclassing her in three rounds of action. She got the nod of all five judges with scores of 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 and 30-27.
Magno owns a win over Jitpong in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, in which she beat her via a 4-1 decision.
The Philippines is down to three boxers that are in the running for the Olympic gold – Marcial, Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam.
Petecio is already in the Women’s Featherweight division semifinals and will face Italian Irma Testa, while Paalam is up against Algerian Mohamed Flissi in the Round of 16 of the Men’s Flyweight division on July 31, 2021.