By Adrian Stewart Co
Ilongga boxer Irish Magno saw her 2020 Tokyo Olympics campaign came to an end after bowing to Thailand’s Jutamas Jitpong in the women’s 48-51kg round-of-16 match yesterday at the Kokukigan Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
The Janiuay, Iloilo-native was outclassed by Jitpong from start to finish to suffer a unanimous decision defeat and became the first Philippine boxer to be booted out in the Summer Games.
Both fighters tested each other in the opening round with limited punch executions but it was Jitpong who had the cleaner looks to gain the nod of the five judges.
Magno became aggressive in the second round but does not have the cleaner punches while Jitpong unloaded some cracking hits that rocked the Ilongga boxer.
Knowing that she was behind in the scorecards, Magno tried to go for the kill in the third and final round but could not connect cleanly while Jitpong managed to penetrate the defense with straight to secure the win.
It was a heartbreaking loss for first-time Olympian Magno as she has defeated Jitpong during the preliminary round of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games held in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Filipino boxer Eumir Marcial made a solid Olympic debut after defeating Algeria’s Nemouchi Younes via referee stop contest-injury in the first round of his round-of-16 middleweight division bout.
The referee was forced to call a halt on the bout with still over a minute left after the ring doctor deemed that Younes cannot proceed with the match due to a bloody cut on his right eyebrow.
Prior to the stoppage, Marcial already displayed his dominance on Younes with his volume punches, including a huge straight that knocked down the Algerian amateur champion.
Marcial, who was predicted by the Associated Press to win a gold medal, will next face Armenian fighter Arman Darchinyan in the quarterfinals to assure him of an Olympic medal.
“I was able to face Darchinyan before and I have defeated him. However, Olympics is a different competition so I have to be ready,” Marcial said in an interview with ONE Sports’ Paolo del Rosario./ASC,WDJ