Comments Thread For: Oleksandr Khyzhniak Edges Eumir Marcial, Will Face Hebert Conceicao Sousa For Men's Middleweight Gold

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

Oleksandr Khyzhniak has not lost since failing to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The 61-fight win streak and a shot at Gold nearly disappeared in an instant, but the middleweight representative for Ukraine dug deep to outlast Philippines' Eumir Marcial in an all-out slugfest. Khyzhniak won on three (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) of the five judges to position Ukraine for a shot at first-ever Gold medal at middleweight.
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[JulVal]

Sorry for my ignorance but how did the Ukranian win if the Filo boxer was ahead on the first 2 rounds?

[komandante]

Marcial won the first 2 rds, he just have to box and run on the 3rd but that's not the style of a Filipino fighter, he still engage and connected the best shots specially the body blows, It was a robbery for UKR.

[rocky_balboa23]

instant classic. better than some pro fights.

Slugfest from start to finish.

[Pacquiaotard86]

It was a great fight. Almost as good as the flyweight bout beforehand with the Kazak and arab-british bloke. Komandate was watching with his Philippines hat on by the looks of things. Marcial did great and could of got the decision with some luck but the Ukrainian just kept on coming. He walked through all power punches Marcial landed flush on his head. Marcial landed the cleaner shots but they were few and far between in comparison to the barrage of punches from the Frankenstein like Ukrainian which were not really as flush but still clean. In the end it came down to size and strength and these attributes favoured the Ukrainian.

[..David..]

What an aweone fight, Khyzniak style is just perfect for amateur boxing i think Marcial is gonna be fire in the pros

[ippo]

One of the judges had Oleksandr winning all 3 rounds 30-27 which I don't agree with. It was clear enough that Eumir won the first. Second was really the only close round. Oleksandr won the last round. It seems like every Filipino Olympic boxer has stamina problems and use holding as part of their strategy. Paalam is gonna have a hard time with the Brit in his next fight for Gold. The Brit goes hard in the first round and still there in the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

[cjeagle1]

One of the judges had Oleksandr winning all 3 rounds 30-27 which I don't agree with. It was clear enough that Eumir won the first. Second was really the only close round. Oleksandr won the last round. It seems like every Filipino Olympic boxer has stamina problems and use holding as part of their strategy. Paalam is gonna have a hard time with the Brit in his next fight for Gold. The Brit goes hard in the first round and still there in the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

Paalam is elusive, has really fast hands and uses his side to side movements to avoid getting hit even against aggressive opponents in the Olympics. It is his speed and ring generalship that I found impressive and the reason I think he will win over Yafai.

Paalam's hand speed and in and out style of fighting kind of reminds me of another Filipino all time great that is fighting this August(Pac as a flyweight didn't yet at that time have as complete a game as Paalam demonstrated in the Olympics) except that he doesn't seem to have the concussive power that Pacquaio possesses. Unlike Marcial though who does have a lot more power behind his shots, Paalam seems to be able to sustain his energy draining style of fighting through all 3 rounds quite easily.

Marcial didn't join the ABAP training program until later and missed a bit of the conditioning the other Filipino fighters benefited from. I understand his preference to stay in the US where he can find more sparring partners in his weight category but his lack of coordination with ABAP, his preference to stay in Zamboanga on his own(due to issues he has with ABAP) rather than training with the team when he was in the Philippines or his inability to join the team in Thailand apparently due to visa issues, seems to have compromised his fitness during the Olympics.

His lack of fitness didn't show in his first 2 fights in the Olympics as none of them lasted beyond the first round but it demonstrated itself in the fight against Khyzniak where he led the scoring in the first 2 rounds but lost steam in the third losing the bout in a very close split decision.