AMATEUR boxing star Eumir Felix Marcial is headed to the pro ranks after inking a six-year deal with Manny Pacquiao Promotions. Marcial just signed the contract and has yet to throw a pro punch, but this early he is generating a lot of buzz from local fight fans because of his uncanny size.
Majority of the world boxing champions the country has produced came from the lower weight classes, as low as the minimumweight or 105-pound division. Ceferino Garcia is on record for being the heaviest Filipino champion in history, winning a version of the world middleweight (160 lbs.) title in the 1930s. Believe it or not, Pacquiao, who started his pro career weighing roughly 106 pounds in 1995, is the second heaviest Filipino champ, having won the WBC junior middleweight (154 lbs.) crown in 2010 against Mexican Antonio Margarito.
Pacquiao, however, fought Margarito at a catchweight and actually weighed only 145 pounds during the fight. Pacquiao was only a welterweight when he fought Margarito for the 154-pound diadem.
Marcial is more like Garcia, big out of the box. There is no need to inflate the dude as he is already huge.
Marcial stands 5’8” and competes in the middleweight class (75 kg.) in the amateur ranks. When he turns pro later this year, he is likely to compete in the middleweight class which has a weight limit of 160 pounds. Down the road, Marcial can easily add eight pounds and fight in the super middleweight (168 pounds) division.
Marcial is actually taller and heavier than Ceferino Garcia. Garcia won the New York State Athletic Commission’s version of the world middleweight title in October 1939, stopping Fred Apostoli in seven rounds in New York. Garcia’s reign was short-lived, although he did successfully retain the crown with a 13th-round knockout of Glen ‘Wildcat’ Lee in Manila in December 1939 (former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey served as the referee) and a draw with former three-division champion Henry Armstrong in March 1940. Garcia lost the belt in May 1940, dropping a decision to Ken Overlin.
Garcia stood 5’6” and weighed in the vicinity of 155 pounds during his reign as middleweight king. Garcia was looked upon as a freak of nature when he was fighting in Manila in the 1920s and he had to embark on a career in the United States because there was no one else to fight in the country.
From a physical standpoint, Marcial is the closest thing to being the second coming of Garcia. Of course, it remains to be seen how he will fare when he finally invades the punch-for-pay business. Campaigning in the middleweight division means taking on a slew of big European and American fighters. Japan’s Ryota Murata currently holds the WBA ‘regular’ middleweight championship (a secondary belt, the WBA ‘super’ version being the generally recognized belt), but ‘heavy’ Asian boxers are not really a dime a dozen.
It is also worth noting that Marcial’s deal with MP Promotions is unique as it gives him the leeway to compete in the Olympics, SEA and Asian Games.
Marcial secured a spot in the Tokyo Olympics early this year after reaching the third round of the Asia-Oceania Olympic Qualifying tournament in Amman, Jordan. Originally scheduled to start in July, the Tokyo Games have been moved to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Still, it remains uncertain if the Games will push through next year as there is still no available vaccine for the virus.
Pro boxers are now allowed to compete in the Olympics and this explain the unique clause in Marcial’s deal with MP Promotions. Marcial’s spot in the Olympics is already secured and he can turn pro this year without endangering his Olympic spot. Officials of the WBC and IBF, two of the four generally recognized sanctioning bodies in pro boxing (the others being the WBA and WBO) are against pros fighting in the Olympics and have even threatened them with sanctions should they compete in the Games. But the sanctions affect only the pros who are already ranked contenders; this should not be a problem with Marcial as he will be just turning pro.
The only problem with a pro/amateur contract is that it might throw off Marcial’s mindset. The training and preparation in the pros and amateurs differ. While an amateur boxer is trained to come out smoking because the duration of the bout is shorter in amateur boxing, a pro boxer is trained to play it safe early and accelerate in the later rounds.
Of course, if the Olympics end up being cancelled again next year, Marcial might as well give up the Olympic dream and concentrate on pro boxing. Marcial is already 24 years old, a rather late age to turn pro. But with all the seasoning he got in the amateur ranks, Marcial can make an impact right away. It will also greatly help that he will have Pacquiao in his corner when he finally decides to bang for the buck.
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