After rousing pro debut, Marcial eager to go back to training

Eumir Felix Marcial after his pro debut victory. MP PROMOTIONS PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Eumir Marcial just had a dominant professional debut after battering Andrew Whitfield in four rounds, but he’s not looking to take it easy any time soon.

Marcial, who is also training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, said MP Promotions President Sean Gibbons advised him to take a breather following his professional debut but he’d rather get back to the gym as soon as he can.

“Sir Sean told me if I’d like to take a vacation first but I told him that the most I’ll do is take a break for one week then I’ll go train,” said Marcial in Filipino Thursday after his unanimous decision victory. “I need to get more experience so that I’ll have better chances when I get to the Olympics.”

Marcial has said that fighting professionally would be his way of preparing for the Summer Games where he is projected as the Philippines’ first gold medal winner.

Standing at 5-foot-8, the middleweight Marcial is one of the larger boxers in the Philippines considering that Manny Pacquiao, who is 5-foot-6, is the country’s heaviest champion when he became the WBC World super welterweight champion in 2010 after beating Antonio Margario.

Despite his dominant performance, Marcial said that preparing for his first professional fight wasn’t as easy as it seems.

“I couldn’t train for a long time because of the COVID-19 pandemic that’s why I struggled to get to the right conditioning,” said Marcial. “Well, at least my opponent didn’t just give me the fight and lie down.”

“Getting sparring mates is also crucial because the last two weeks I wasn’t sparring since those who want to spar with me wanted to be paid first.”

Nevertheless, Marcial went to work and brutalized Whitfield, closing the American’s left eye in the second round and landed 120 punches to his opponent’s 46 to get 40-36 scores from all three judges.