AMERICAN Andrew Whitfield is no easy opponent for debuting pro Eumir Felix Marcial.
“Whitfield will be no walk in the park for Eumir,” Marvin Somodio, Freddie Roach’s assistant trainer at the Wild Card Gym, told BusinessMirror.
Marcial, 25, makes his pro debut against the 29-year-old Whitfield in a four-rounder card under the Premier Boxing Champion promotions on Thursday at the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles, California.
Somodio said Whitfield, of Lewiston, Idaho, will be heading into the fight night toting some advantages and expressing bravado.
“He [Whitfield] has more [pro] experience than Marcial because he already fought four times and at the same this is his hometown,” said Somodio, who watched videos of two of the American’s three previous fights.
“He is not an awkward fighter and his style is basic so we have to fight basic, too. Whitfield is also not a brawler, but we just can’t rely on those clips,” Somodio said. “We are not going to relax. There might be a chance that he changes his style once they are inside the ring.”
But Somodio said Whitfield would be an “easy target” for Marcial. He also expressed the possibility of Marcial knocking Whitfield out.
BusinessMirror did its own research and saw Whitfield as a heavy-hitter after registering two knockout victories against fellow American Thomas Turner (second round technical knockout) in August 2019 in Montana and the other was four years ago in his debut against CJ Mount (first round TKO) in Idaho.
Whitfield (3-1 win-loss record with two KOs) is trained by Richard Jackson, who owns the Jackson’s Gym in Lewiston.
In a local Lewiston news web site, Whitfield said he is not bothered by the hype accompanying Marcial’s debut and his attachment with eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao.
“We’re excited to fight him. I think it will be a great test of our abilities. I want to see what those Olympic boys have to offer,” Whitfield told online news outfit outlet klewtv.com. “Maybe they are not as tough as they think.”
BusinessMirror manage to reach Whitfield but refused to be interviewed.
“No thanks,” he said in an online message.
The Marcial-Whitfield fight is one of the undercards of the main event between undefeated Lithuanian Eimantas Stanionis and Colombian Janer Gonzalez.
