MANILA, Philippines – After convincingly qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Eumir Marcial hopes to hit two birds with one stone as he goes for the men’s middleweight gold in the 2020 Asia and Oceania Olympic boxing qualifiers on Tuesday, March 10 (Wednesday, March 11, Manila time) in Amman, Jordan. 

The Olympics-bound Filipino pug pulled off a split-decision win over India’s Ashish Kumar to advance to the men’s middleweight (75kg) final. 

Marcial booked an Olympics slot after a 3rd round RSC win over Mongolia’s Byamba-Erden Otgonbaatar as a semifinal berth assures him a slot in the quadrennial meet. 

The 25-year-old Filipino boxer had a strong start to the bout, but the Indian slowly regained his footing which resulted in a 4-1 score in his favor in the 2nd round. 

In the last round, Kumar managed to score a left jab on Marcial but it was the Filipino who still held the advantage in the bout. 

Marcial is the only Filipino boxer who has qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but flyweights Carlo Paalam and Irish Magno look to keep their Olympic hopes up in the box-off bouts on Wednesday. – Rappler.com