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Philippines, 18 May 2024 |
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Eumir Felix Marcial, our First World Class Big Man Since Ceferino Garcia in the 30s? By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Fri, 17 Apr 2020  Eumir Felix Marcial. If Eumir Felix Marcial lives up to his potentials and the expectations of the many who believe in him including Manny Pacquiao, we will have our first real world class big man in boxing since Ceferino Garcia in the prewar. Certainly, Pacquiao is already technically our best ever fighter in the big boys league but Manny is really a blown up lightweight who is gifted enough to have won world titles in the welterweight and super welterweight classes. Had he been blessed by couple of inches more in height, Manny could have even reached the middleweights, and who knows... This early, Marcial is already the subject of a tug of war among promoters bidding to sign him up in the pros including Pacquiao's MP Promotions and last reported, Shelley Finkel who had handled the likes of Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and even Pacquiao. But first thing first. He has to focus on the rescheduled 2020 Tokyo Olympics where he is among those favored to reach the medal rounds at least. Marcial showed his readiness to take on the best of the rest of the world in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by topping the middleweight division in the Asia Oceania pre Olympic boxing qualifiers held in Jordan last March. Marcial bested Abilkhan Amankul of Kazakhstan by split decision in the men's middleweight finals held at the Prince Hamza Hall in Amman, Jordan. He finished the tournament undefeated with four wins, one by referee stopped contest. Meanwhile, Amankul lost for the first time since 2018 when he last dropped a decision to Uzbekhistan's Israel Madrinov, now an undefeated pro, in the middleweight finals of the Asian Games. Already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics two days before, Marcial defeated Ashish Kumar of India by majority decision in the middleweight semi finals. Marcial who has a walkover win over Kumar last year, proved he was superior to the Indian in their first actual ring meeting by outpunching and outworking his rival. He had earlier defeated Kirra Rustom of Australia and Bayamba Erdene Otgonbaatar of Mongolia by RSC. Amankul defeated China's Toutehebierke Tanglatihan in the other semis. Curiously, Marcial had some similarities with Pacquiao and Garcia. He started out as a flyweight like Manny early in their career with Marcial winning his first major international title in the 2011 AIBA Youth World Championship in Astana. Like Garcia, he also fought as a welterweight winning a gold in the 2015 SEA Games and silver in the 2015 Asian Amateur Championship before campaigning as middleweight where he has won golds in the recent Olympic qualifier and two SEA Games and silver in the 2019 World Championship. Garcia after a couple of failed world title tries at welterweight, losing to Barney Ross and Henry Armstrong in 1937-38, he won the middleweight championships on October 2, 1939 by knockout over Fred Apostoli. After a couple of title defenses, a late round kayo of archrival Glen Lee in Manila and draw with Armstrong, Garcia lost his world crown to Ken Overlin in May 1941. He finished his career with a record of 120 wins, 76 by KOs, 30 losses and 14 draws. Only 24 years old (born October 29, 1995 in Zamboanga City), Marcial has the potentials of bringing home another Olympic medal in boxing and God willing a second world middleweight championship in professional boxing. Its been really that long since we kicked some glorious asses above the welterweights. In my next article, I will try to relate some instances where Pinoy "bigs" managed to do that after Garcia and before Pacquiao. The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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