TOKYO - An impressive Philippine boxing campaign in the Tokyo Olympics is about to get even better when Eumir Marcial guns for a place in the middleweight semifinals in the fight against Arman Darchinyan on Sunday.
Marcial, 25, is the biggest star of this compact four-man team sent here by the Alliance of Boxing Associations of the Philippines (Abap) and tagged as the favorite for the gold medal by at least two international news wires.
But the first week of the boxing competition has seen him take a backseat to teammates Carlo Paalam, who has punched an unexpected ticket to the quarterfinals, and Nesthy Petecio, who is in the finals of the women's featherweight class.
Freddie Roach's boys
Marcial has seen action in these Olympics for less than three minutes, getting a first-round bye as the No. 4 seed and knocking down Algeria’s Younes Nemouchi in the round of 16 before wrapping an up RSC-injury victory.
He gets his first real test here against Darchinyan, who, like Marcial, has seen action in the pro ranks and has also trained under Freddie Roach, the famed owner of the Wild Card Gym credited for Manny Pacquiao's phenomenal rise.
The scouting report is that the 27-year old from Vanadzor fights like his famous uncle Vic Darchinyan, a two-time world champion at flyweight and super flyweight who went all out and rare took a step back in a great career.
Coaches feel that so long as Marcial uses his head, he won't have any problem dispatching Darchinyan just like he did in their first meeting during the 2018 World Boxing Championships in Russia.
But he's not taking this opponent lightly.
“I beat him (Darchinyan) in 2018 in Russia [world championships], but the Olympics are another story,” Marcial said. “Everyone here prepared hard for their matches.”
Darchinyan not only is motivated to end Armenia's 13-year drought in Olympic boxing, but his family also has an ax to grind against Filipino fighters, since it was Nonito Donaire who inflicted the older Vic the two most deflating losses of his career.
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