By WAYLON GALVEZ
Top seed Eumir Marcial earned a bye in the preliminary round and secured for himself a quarterfinal berth in the 75-kilogram (middleweight) division at the start of the ASBC Elite Men and Women Boxing Championships Monday night in Dubai.
The 25-year-old Marcial, who is one of the 12 participants in his division, will face the winner between Iraq’s Ridha Talib Jabbar and Mongolia’s Otgonbaatar Byamba-Erdene.
Matches star at 6 p.m. (10 p.m. Manila time).
Aside from Marcial, second seed Seyedshahin Mousavi of Iran, third seed Ashish Kumar of India and fourth seed Omurbek Murbek Bekzhigit Uulu of Kyrgyzstan have also earned a bye in the prelims.
Marcial is using this event as part of his preparation for the Tokyo Olympics scheduled July 23 to August 8. He earned a spot in the Games early last year via the Asia-Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Amman, Jordan.
He is the only Tokyo Olympics-bound boxer of the national team in the ASBC after the Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines (ABAP) opted not to send the other three Olympians in Nesthy Petecio, Irish Magno and Carlo Paalam in Dubai due to quarantine reasons under the COVOD-19 protocols.
Nevertheless, the leadership of ABAP will pin its hopes not only on Marcial in the ASBC but seven others who are preparing for this year’s Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.
These are Mark Lester Durens (49kg), Marvin Tabamo (52kg), Junmilardo Ogayre (56kg), Jere Samuel Dela Cruz (60kg) and John Paul Panuayan (64kg) in the men’s division, as well as Josie Gabuco (48kg) and Maricel Dela Torre (60kg) in the women’s side.
Tabamo takes on Ramish of Afghanistan in their flyweight bout, followed by Dela Cruz as he tackles Sri Lanka’s Jeewantha Wimukthi Kumara in the lightweight division, and Panuayan meets Majid Alnaqbi of the United Arab Emirates in the light welterweight class.
ABAP Secretary-General Ed Picson said that this event would provide Marcial the type of amateur style boxing after he trained for two months when he got to the US in October for his first professional fight last December.
“It’s Olympic style boxing so of course it’s good prep for him,” said Picson.
As for the other boxers, Picson said the ASBC is important for their SEAG preparation, saying: “It’s the exposure of boxers who have not had competition experience for over a year.”
