Eumir’s journey to Tokyo

With two months to go before the start of the Tokyo Olympics, middleweight boxing qualifier Eumir Marcial finds himself embroiled in a media brouhaha where he’s portrayed rightly or wrongly as a victim left virtually on his own to support his campaign for the country’s first gold medal. There has to be some misunderstanding in the way Marcial, ABAP, PSC and MP Promotions are involved in this mess. First of all, they’re not on divergent paths. Their common goal is to conquer Tokyo but as the clock ticks to count down the days, maybe they’re all feeling the pressure.  Now isn’t the time to cast aspersions. Now is the time to come together, regroup and lock arms.

This Friday, Marcial is set to leave for Dubai with ABAP sports psychologist Marcus Manalo and he’ll warm up for Tokyo by competing in the Asian Elite Championships starting Monday. ABAP secretary-general Ed Picson said Marcial, who’s now in Zamboanga, sent his passport by air cargo the other day. He’s been issued his travel papers for Dubai but the plan is to join the ABAP training pool in Thailand after the tournament and his Thai visa is still under process. “It takes five days to process a visa application with the Thai Embassy,” said Picson. “Hopefully, we’ll get his visa before he leaves on Friday.” Marcial arrives in Manila from Zamboanga tomorrow. No quarantine is required in Dubai so Marcial will be ready for action when the competition reels off.

Marcial is the only Olympic qualifier among eight Filipinos battling in Dubai. The other qualifiers Carlo Paalam, Nesthy Petecio and Irish Magno are training in Thailand. It’ll be a gauge of Marcial’s preparedness for Tokyo after spending six months in the US, training with coach Freddie Roach and sparring with a slew of hard knockers. Whatever kinks crop up will be ironed out when Marcial reunites with the national pool and coaching staff in Thailand. In Zamboanga, he’s in good hands with coach Joven Jimenez, IBF superflyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas and ABAP coach Jerson Nietes watching over his workouts under Junnie Navarro’s care.

In the latest Olympic world rankings, Marcial is the No. 1 middleweight. Algeria’s Younes Nemouchi is No. 2, Kazakhstan’s Abilkhan Amankul No. 3 and Russia’s Gleb Bakshi and Uganda’s David Semujju are tied at No. 4. Four of the five have qualified for Tokyo except for Bakshi who’ll try to make it out of the Europe qualifiers. Bakshi outpointed Marcial, 5-0, in the middleweight final of the 2019 AIBA World Championships in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Marcial said he’s confident his power will make his Olympic dream come true. “When the fight starts and I start hitting them, they change,” he said, quoted by John Dennen in the London weekly magazine Boxing News. “That’s my gift. I think my power is my gift. I want to make my father (Eulalio) happy while he’s still here in this world. All my cousins, my brothers, he taught boxing to become an Olympic champion. He worked hard. He put all his life into boxing even without a salary. The pressure, I use that for motivation. The pressure’s already there. I’m going to absorb that but I’m not going to lose my focus. My family’s a very poor family, a simple family. In my province, we’re not rich, we’re poor but we’re a very close family. We’re helping each other. Someday, I’m going to give them a beautiful life, a happy life, simple but happy. That gives me motivation, every day in my training.”