Tokyo 2020: blow for Eumir Marcial as Olympic hopeful settles for bronze in Dubai

Hopes are high in the Philippines that 25-year-old Felix Eumir Marcial will be able to pick up the baton once the legendary Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao finally hangs up his gloves.

Indeed, Marcial is being held up as the Southeast Asian nation’s best hope of a medal at the upcoming Tokyo Games, in spite of his fraught preparations.

But the Zamboanga City-native was handed a “wake up call” on Saturday when he ran into Uzbekistan’s Jafarov Saidjamshid in the semi-finals of the AIBA Asian Elite Boxing Championships in Dubai.

The middleweight contest was decided on the judges’ scorecards and Saidjamshid, who did not qualify to compete at the Olympics, claimed a shock unanimous decision.

Marcial’s training regimen has been severely disrupted in recent weeks.