Boxing mends from a KO

We were unable to get hold of Eumir Felix Marcial, but a source close to the fighter said the top national middleweight who’ s already qualified for the Olympics has not wavered in his decision to turn professional.

“Eumir is still on target to turn pro and will fight as a pro in three four-round matches max before the Tokyo Summer Games if they are ever held next year,” according to the source.

The 24-year-old Marcial and his advisers met with tax attorney and national archery chief Clint Aranas on Wednesday about the similar P10-million signing bonuses offered by Marcial’s two top suitors to become his manager. That’s a move described by the source as another “sure sign Eumir will turn pro.”

The source also said Marcial may tap Aranas, who offered his services pro bono, to speak officially for him while looking into business deals that will come his way.

Marcial was to meet with boxing president Ricky Vargas next week to hear the options that the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines plans to offer for him to remain an amateur when he guns for an Olympic gold medal.

Boxing, down and out for the count from a stinging haymaker delivered by the coronavirus pandemic, is slowly getting up from the canvas.

There are developments showing that the sweet science, now on all fours, would be back standing as early as next month.

Even the Methuselahs of the sport are wandering around the ring, proclaiming that they still have the strength and stamina to return to prizefighting and fast.

Soon as Mike Tyson, 53, declared himself fit for a comeback, Evander Holyfield said he wouldn’t mind boxing again at the ripe old age of 57 to complete a heavyweight trilogy with the archenemy he beat twice before.

Meanwhile, Bob Arum, the grand pooh-bah of ring promoters at 88, said his Top Rank organization will begin putting on fights in June for the first time since COVID-19 knocked out boxing in the United States and elsewhere.

Arum said at first there won’t be any spectators until the fourth quarter of 2020. But eventually, bouts he envisions for Florida, Nevada and California will include the usual fight fans when medical experts say it is safe to do so.

Arum’s counterparts in Mexico City and Tokyo announced they, too, will restart boxing aggressively.

Promoter Fernando Beltran told the ESPN sports network there’s a plan for three Mexican world champions—Miguel Berchert, Emanuel Navarrete and Elwin Soto to headline three successive nontitle fights sans fans also in June.

And the national boxing commission and the union of 283 club owners in Japan have set up guidelines to restart ring action in July with eight promotions behind closed doors.