Two left standing

MANILA, Philippines — Featherweight Carlo Paalam and lightheavyweight Eumir Marcial are the last two warriors in contention from the Philippine boxing team of nine with the chance of qualifying for the Paris Olympics still on the table at the Hangzhou Asian Games. The finalists of the 57kg featherweight and 80kg lightheavyweight classes advance to Paris where the competition will be in 13 divisions, seven for men and six for women.

Paalam, 25, is a win short of barging into the semifinals and securing a sure bronze. He’ll go for it against Uzbekistan’s reigning world champion Abdulmalik Khalokov in the quarterfinals at the Hangzhou Gymnasium today. The Tokyo Olympic flyweight silver medalist has so far won two bouts, outpointing Jordan’s Mohammad Abu Jajeh, 5-0 and Kyrgyzstan’s Munarbek Uulu Seiitbek, 4-1. Khalokov, 23, is a 5-9 bemedalled fighter who has topped the Youth World Championships, Summer Youth Olympics and Asian Championships. His two Asian Games victims were Chinese-Taipei’s Cheng Wei Lee and Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Duong. In 2018, the Uzbek defeated Filipino prospect Criztian Pitt Laurente twice on points. He’s on a seven-bout win streak with his last loss a split decision to Kazakhstan’s Orazbek Assylkulov in the Strandja Memorial quarterfinals in Bulgaria last February.

Marcial, who turns 28 on Oct. 29, is a man on a mission. He postponed continuing to fight in the pros for the opportunity to punch his way back to the Olympics after bagging a bronze in Tokyo. Marcial is a win away from a ticket to Paris and a shot at the Asian Games gold. He’s now assured of a bronze but it’s not what he left his Las Vegas training camp for. Marcial pocketed a bronze at the 2018 Asian Games and duplicating the finish is no consolation.

Standing in the way of Marcial’s march to the final is Syria’s 27-year-old Ahmad Ghousoon who has outpointed South Korea’s Kim Jin Jae, 4-1 and Tajikistan’s Shabbos Negmatulloev, 5-0 in Hangzhou. Marcial trounced Mongolia’s Dalai Ganzorig and Vietnam’s Nguyen Manh Cuong, both via 5-0 verdicts then stopped Thailand’s Weerapon Jongjoho in the quarterfinals to make it to the Final Four. He took a standing eight-count after his legs