Eumir Marcial of the Philippines was denied what would have been his first Asian Games gold medal by the People’s Republic of China’s Tuohetaerbieke Tanglatihan in the men’s 80kg final on Thursday (5 September).
Marcial – who secured a boxing quota at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games a night earlier by reaching the final – wound up on the losing end with a 0-5 score against the Chinese opponent, after the two fighters split the first two rounds.
Marcial, however, was a gracious loser, tipping his hat to the 26-year-old world silver medallist.
“Everyone has messaged me that I should have won,” Marcial said. “We have judges and we need to respect their decision.
“I’m happy I got the silver and I qualified for the Paris [2024] Olympics, so maybe at the Olympics I will change the colour of this and make it gold.”
After the opening bell, Marcial appeared to be well in control of the fight, winning the nod from all five judges.
But in the second round, Tuohetaerbieke landed a clean shot to the Filipino lefty’s face that leveled the score going into the last dance.
The round looked like it could have gone either way yet, with the home crowd behind Tuohetaerbieke, the decision went in favour of their own. Marcial, though, was far from bitter with the outcome.
“This was not new for me. I have been fighting at amateur in this competition for more than a decade. It happens a lot,” he said.
“I tried to come out and win on all five judges, and I did it in the first round. I got the 5-0 score.
“I tried to do it again in the second round, but he caught me. I got a standing eight count and that’s the thing that changed the judges’ minds. Congratulations to Team China.”
