MANILA, Philippines - After two months in the United States where he is training with legendary trainer Freddie Roach, Filipino boxer Eumir Marcial is now catching up with his future opponents when it comes to his conditioning.
Marcial left for Los Angeles in late September and has since been working with Roach at the Wild Card Gym, as well as Filipino trainer Marvin Somodio, and strength and conditioning coach Justine Fortune. It’s been a crucial stretch for the Olympic-bound boxer, as he was barely able to work out during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic when he was in the Philippines.
“If I was in the Philippines, in our situation, it would be difficult,” Marcial said when he guested at the Philippines Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum on Tuesday morning.
“The other countries, India, I think seven boxers, Indian boxers, all in Europe now for training,” he revealed. “And the European countries, they have already started the tournament. So all of them are my Olympics competitors, they are all preparing for the Olympics.”
Marcial admits that had he stayed in the Philippines, he would fall behind his future foes in terms of conditioning. Sean Gibbons, the president of MP Promotions which signed Marcial to a professional contract in July, noted that the boxer had no gym to work out in and couldn’t even go out to jog or run while he was in the country.
Moreover, in the Philippines, Marcial does not have sparring partners who can help him get ready for next year’s Tokyo Olympics. In Los Angeles, he has an abundance of them.
“The key is really is the experience that everybody else has and was gaining more and more, and Eumir was kinda getting left behind in a sense,” Gibbons noted. “He’s too big… He’s a 165-pounder. So he’s not really able to get the work he needed in the gym, in the sparring.”
Recently, Marcial worked out with middleweight contender Gabriel Rosado. He also got to work with professional prospects from Kazakhstan and Armenia, and Gibbons assured that he is sparring with “world-class fighters.”
“So there’s so many different styles and people you see and spar with every day, that you wouldn’t get the chance if you were in the Philippines, working out,” said Gibbons.
“He’s been able to work with a lot of different fighters here, and the tutelage under Freddie Roach, and just the training overall,” he also said.
The 25-year-old Marcial said he has learned plenty in the two months that he’s spent in Los Angeles, and is looking forward to even more lessons in the coming months. He has proclaimed himself ready to make his professional debut, which may come within the month.
Moreover, Marcial is confident that he will be in top condition by the time the Tokyo Olympics roll around in July 2021.
“For me now, I can say to my body, I’m in condition, I’m ready, I’m thin, I’m skinny,” said Marcial, who qualified for the Tokyo Games after ruling the Asia-Oceania qualifier in Jordan last March .
“In my fighting weight in the Olympics, I was only 2.5 kilos over. So, what’s more, six pounds in my fighting weight in the Olympics,” he added. “I guess, I name-maintain that I’m not growing too much, I’m not bloating too much or slowing down.”
This gives Marcial all the confidence in the world, as he knows he’s not falling behind the fighters that he may end up facing in Tokyo.
“If I don’t have preparation, I don’t prepare for a fight, maybe of course we should relax first, while our opponents are already serious, the preparations are in full swing and they are already training in their gyms or their place, “he said.
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