THE Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC) Asian Elite Men and Women Boxing Championships offers not only medals but also cash prizes for the podium finishers.
A gold medal is worth $10,000 (roughly P480,000) in the tournament Dubai is hosting from May 21 to June 1. A silver medal, on the other hand, is worth $5,000 and a bronze $2,500.
The International Amateur Boxing Association raised the prize fund totaling $400,000.
The prizes could augur well for Tokyo Olympics-bound Eumir Felix Marcial, who only recently ranted on social media about a supposed lack of financial support from his national sports association and the Philippine Sports Commission.
The cash incentives are also an added motivation for the other Filipino boxers—five-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist light flyweight Josie Gabuco and Mark Lester Durens, lightweights Maricel dela Torre and Jere Samuel dela Cruz, flyweight Marvin Tabamo, bantamweight Junmilardo Ogayre and light welterweight John Panuayan—who are also fighting in Dubai.
The team will fly to Dubai via an Emirates flight on Friday with coaches Roel Velasco, Joegin Ladon and Mitchell Martinez, sports psychologist Marcus Jarwin Manalo, masseur Herbert Manlangit, physiotherapist Rhodalyn Martinez and AIBA’s Ludy Therese Cariales.
Sean Gibbons, president of MP Promotions which signed Marcial to a professional contract last year, said the 25-year-old Zamboangueño would be going for the gold in Dubai.
“I will be very surprised if he [Marcial] doesn’t win the gold in Dubai,” Gibbons said. “His victory there will set the stage for his gold medal in Tokyo.”
Marcial has been advised by his buddies not to pour everything in Dubai so as not to risk his fists which ache and swell after every fight.