BANGKOK – Welterweight Eumir Felix Marcial and light flyweight Rogen Ladon marched to the finals of the ASBC Asian Boxing Championships by beating their rivals Friday afternoon at the Thammasat University Gymnasium.
The heavy-handed 19-year-old Marcial from Zamboanga pummeled the older and taller Japanese Olympian Suzuki Yasuhiro for three rounds. He impressed the judges from Morocco and Finland, but failed to get the nod of the one from Russia.
Still, the gold medalist in the 2011 World Junior Championships emerged a 2-1 winner. He broke into a wide smile after he was announced as the winner of the semis match.
Rogen Ladon beat Mongolia’s Gab-Erdene Gankhuyag, 3-0, in one of Friday’s evening matches to advance to the finals of the light-fly division.
Ladon is doing well in his first major tournament outside of the SEA Games where he won the silver in Singapore last June.
With his fourth win in eight days here, Marcial moved on to Saturday’s finals of the 69 kg division against the top seed from Kazakhstan, Daniyar Yeleussinov.
As he cooled down minutes after the fight, Marcial said he tried hard to ignore the pain inside the ring. Over his previous fights he has suffered lumps and bruises on his face.
“Masakit na talaga kahit jab lang ang tumatama (It really hurts even it’s only a jab that lands). Pero tiniis ko na lang at pinilit ko sumuntok ng sumuntok (But I ignored it and tried to keep on punching),” he said.
He tried to feel his swollen right eye with his hand, and managed to crack a joke.
“Ang dami ko nang bukol pero ang kinis pa din ng mukha ko (I have lumps and yet my skin stays smooth),” said Marcial, who has a funny demeanor outside the ring.
Regardless of what happens in the finals, Marcial is assured of a ticket to Doha, Qatar for the AIBA World Championships from Oct. 5 to 15. It’s a qualifying event for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In the finals, he gets the chance to join Leopoldo Cantancio, Roel Velasco, Leopoldo Serrantes and Ronald Chavez as previous winners of the prestigious event.
Marcial said everything goes out the window in his finals match with the Kazakh.
“Patay na kung patay (It’s do or die). Gold na ang pagla-labanan (It’s for the gold),” said Marcial as his teammates gathered around him.
The 28-year-old Yasuhiro, also a southpaw, landed his quick jabs early on as Marcial waited for the opening. And once he found it, the Filipino started to connect with his heavy left straight.
In the second round, Marcial hurt the Japanese with solid blows to the head and body, and it seemed to slow Yasuhiro’s down. In the third, he just cruised to victory.
Ed Picson, executive director of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, said the Japanese, an inch taller than the 5-foot-9 Marcial, was a tough nut to crack.
“The Japanese boxer was tougher than we thought. But Marcial was clearly the more aggressive boxer. He really wanted that win,” he said.
After Friday’s afternoon session, five boxers from Kazakhstan are already in the finals, sweeping their semis assignments, joined by two from Uzbekistan and one each from China, Mongolia and the Philippines.