Algeria’s Younes Nemouchi (red) and winner Philippines’ Eumir Marcial hug at the end of their men’s middle (69-75kg) preliminaries round of 16 boxing match during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo on July 29, 2021. (Photo by Luis ROBAYO / various sources / AFP)
TOKYO—Everybody had been talking about Eumir Marcial’s power. On Thursday, he gave Younes Nemouchi a taste of it.
Marcial, the last of the country’s boxing delegation to make his debut here, shook his Algerian foe several times and could have inflicted even more damage in the men’s boxing middleweight competitions in the Tokyo Olympics at Kokugikan Arena here.
But the fight was stopped with 19 seconds left in the first round, because of a cut on Nemouchi’s forehead.
“I wanted [the fight to last longer] that’s why I relaxed in the last couple of minutes, but the doctor stopped [the fight],” Marcial said. “…Accidents happened. He got cut and the doctor said it was a big cut.”
But the referee wouldn’t have been faulted if he stopped the fight due to Marcial’s superiority.
The Filipino pro floored Nemouchi with 1:10 to go in the first round, connecting on a huge right hook that forced an eight-count on the Algerian, who for some reason opted to stand toe-to-toe with Marcial.
“I hit him with a right hook when he went down,” Marcial said in Filipino. “But he was really tough. I hit him several times with body shots but he never lost his fighting spirit. He was really going to slug it out.”
Marcial next faces Armenia’s Arman Darchinyan, who thoroughly dominated Andrej Csemez in their matchup earlier in the day for a unanimous decision victory.
Marcial had beaten Darchinyan in a tournament three years ago in Russia, but he said that result hardly mattered now.
“This is the Olympics. Everyone prepared for this event,” he said.