TOKYO Olympic bronze medalist Eumir Felix Marcial survived a bad cut on his right eye in the second round to score a unanimous decision victory over American Stephen Pichardo yesterday at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson City, California.
Marcial scored his third straight pro win in the six-round middleweight clash that served as the undercard of the Jerwin Ancajas-Fernando Martinez International Boxing Federation junior bantamweight title fight.
Pichardo absorbed his third loss against eight wins and one draw.
Marcial suffered the cut from an accidental headbutt and fought the rest of the match with blood pouring from his eye but still won 60-54 on the scorecards of judges James Green, Ivan Guillermo and Ellis Johnson.
Marcial is expected to return to the country to rejoin the national boxing team as it prepares for the Asian Elite Senior Boxing Championships scheduled Oct. 30 to Nov. 12 in Amman, Jordan.
Marcial’s win somehow softened the impact of Ancajas’ failure to regain the crown from Martinez, who snatched the Filipino’s crown last Feb. 26 by unanimous decision.
Martinez fought with a challenger’s mentality in outboxing and punishing Ancajas to convincingly win the nod of all three judges for his successful first defense of the crown.
Judges Tiffany Clinton and Zachary Young had identical scores of 118-110 while Ellis Johnson had it 119-109 in favor of the sturdy Mexican, who further boosted his stock while remaining undefeated in 15 fights, eight of them by knockout.
A petty officer in the Philippine Navy reserve corps, Ancajas had a good start in the early rounds but failed to sustain his attack in the face of the increasing pressure being put up by Martinez and absorbed this third loss against 33 victories (22 KOs) and two draws.
The second straight setback of the Panabo, Davao del Norte native only strengthened the assertion of local ring pundits that he was better off moving up from the 115-pound division, a weight he had difficulty making when he first fought Martinez.
The country was left without a world champion following the second-round loss of Nonito Donaire in Saitama, Japan last July in his unification title bout with Japanese champ Naoya Inoue for the world bantamweight crown.
The turning point of the Ancajas-Martinez match came in the sixth and seventh rounds when the reigning Mexican champ connected with combinations that repeatedly staggered his Filipino foe, who suffered a bloodied forehead near the end of the seventh round when their heads clashed.
Fighting on wobbly legs, Ancajas’ bid to return the favor were feeble, and the Mexican’s right straight jolted him anew in the 10th that had him backing against the ropes just before the bell sounded.
Ring statistics compiled by American cable boxing network Showtime underscored how Ancajas was outboxed by Martinez, who connected on 19 of his 90 jabs for a 27 percent average, a far cry from the measly seven percent clip of his rival (17/241).
The Mexican also had a 54-15 edge in body shots landed while connecting on 222 of 584 power punches, good for 38 percent, compared to the Filipinos 31 percent clip (168-554).
