FORTUNE continued to smile on Olympic-bound middleweight boxer Felix Eumir Marcial, who entered the semifinals of the ASBC Asian Asian Elite Men and Women’s Boxing Championships in Dubai without landing a punch when his opponent in the quarterfinals withdrew Wednesday night.
Boxing Secretary General Ed Picson yesterday said that Marcial’s Mongolian foe, Otgoon Baatar Byamba Erdene, forfeited the match due to a shoulder injury.
Erdene was the same fighter that Marcial stopped in the round-of-8 on the way to ruling his weight class in the Asia-Oceania Olympic qualifying boxing tournament in Amman, Jordan in March 2020 to book a ticket to the Tokyo Olympic Games less than two months from now.
Seeded No. 1 in his division, the Zamboanga City-born fighter had earlier drawn an opening-round bye and will next face Uzbek Saidjamshid Jafarov, who pulled off a stunning 5-0 upset win over Kyrgyzstan No. 4 seed Omurbek Bekzhigit Uulu.
Bowing out of contention was Pinoy lightweight Jere Samuel dela Cruz, who fell to India’s tall and lanky Varinder Singh 0-5 in their quarterfinals bout.
Marcial will be one four Filipino fighters in the semis set last night in the Middle East commercial and tourist hub, the others being 30th Southeast Asian Games gold medalist and light flyweight Josie Gabuco, light flyweight Mark Lester Durens and bantamweight Junmilardo Ogayre.
The top-seeded Gabuco also drew a first-round bye in her weight category where there are only five boxers competing.
She will go up against Uzbekistan’s Gulasal Sultonalieva, who dumped Sri Lanka’s Rasmika Ilangaratha 5-0 in the quarterfinals last Tuesday.
Having hurdled their international debuts, Durens faces Kazakhstan’s Daniyal Sabit while Ogayre tackles defending champion Mirazibek Mirzhahalilov in the other semis bouts.
Marcial, Durens, Ogayre and Gabuco are assured of bronze medals regardless of the outcome of their respective matches on top of getting $2,500 apiece (roughly P120,000) for reaching the semis after the International Boxing Association (AIBA) decided to award a total pot of $400,000 for (P19.2 million) for the Asian meet.
The champion and silver medalist in each weight division will receive $10,000 (P480,830) and $5,000 (P240,415), respectively.
