Eumir Marcial's Olympic medal hopes were dashed when he went up against Uzbekistan's Turabek Khabibullaev.
The Uzbek was young and restless, and his forward jabs kept the Filipino at bay. Marcial had a so-so first round and he just couldn't get out of that bind. While Marcial split the judges in the final round, he only had the Morrocan judge scoring for him in the first two rounds. Eumir's coaches told him to time his bombs well, but the young Uzbek's defense was insanely impenetrable.
And what is up with the American judges?
For some reason, they have something against the Philippine boxing contingent. It felt like it was in the first round during the Nesthy Petecio match, and he just gave all of his nods to Turabek in this match.
But yeah, there is no cooking show here. Turabek came up with a game plan and successfully executed it.
As for Marcial, I don't know if he's too old to compete in Los Angeles at age 32, but I don't know if the knockout artist will still compete in amateur boxing as he has turned pro since 2000.
Anyway, his setback sucks but hopefully this would even push him further to campaign for a gold medal before he retires.
