Frank Martinez won the bout of the day in Palencia

The Enrique Rodriguez Cal U22 Memorial Tournament started with 13 contests in Palencia, Spain and the host nation’s promising Frank Martinez controlled his first tough challenge in the quarter-finals.

The competition was named by Spain’s first ever Olympic medallist, Enrique Rodriguez Cal who claimed bronze medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics and he also had impressive results in the 1^st World Boxing Championships and the Mediterranean Games.

The Elite National Champion Frank Martinez is a hard-working boxer in the Spanish U22 national team but he could not expect an easy contest against Romania’s Dorulet Tiu, the 2022 European Youth Boxing Championships bronze medallist.

The Spanish southpaw boxer tried to close the angles against the attacking Romanian and he planned to do it smarter than the 19-year-old Romanian. Martinez was patient and he worked more on feet to land his shots from longer distance to win this light middleweight (71kg) bout.

Altogether 73 young boxers including ten girls will compete for the gold medals in the historic first edition Enrique Rodriguez Cal U22 Memorial Tournament.

Belgium, England, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Scotland, Spain, Ukraine and Wales are the participating nations in this U22 international tournament.