Marcial wins silver that shines like gold

MANILA, Philippines — Eumir Felix Marcial failed to recover from a flash knockdown in the second round and yielded the gold medal to Russian Gleb Bakshi in the middleweight final of the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Ekaterinburg, Russia Saturday.

Marcial imposed his will early on and led in the scorecards after the first round but failed to elude Bakshi’s wild left hook in a fiery exchange midway in the second frame. The Filipino former world juniors champion did get up after only the third count but was never the same.

Taking the cue, Bakshi played smart and coasted the rest of the fight to earn three 29-28 and two 29-27 scores from the judges to clinch the gold.

“Eumir showed a lot of determination and skills, and to be No. 2 in the world is a major achievement,” said ABAP president Ricky Vargas. “We’ll support him and our other worthy boxers in getting more intensive training on the road to the SEA Games and the Olympic qualifiers next year. We will again request PSC for their usual assistance.”

“Marcial performed superbly but just got unlucky. But we need to get him to develop his own boxing brand which he cannot do at home because of lack of sparring partners in his weight division. We need to get him (and our other big guys) appropriate training partners,” said Don Abnett, the country’s team consultant.

ABAP secretary-general Ed Picson is in final negotiations with the Great Britain Boxing Association for a training camp in the England Institute of Sport (EIS).