Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Eumir Marcial will remain grounded in the next few months.
Marcial showed up during the Philippine Sportswriters Association Awards Night on Monday with his right hand in a cast.
Before returning to the Philippines a few weeks ago, coming off his fourth fight in the professional ranks, the Filipino southpaw opted to have his hand operated on in the United States.
Given his condition, Marcial’s planned fifth fight in May has been ruled out.
Instead, he is looking at July or even August as target months for his comeback.
“By May, I would be training again but there would still be no contact,” Marcial said.
Apparently, the injury on his knuckle is not new.
“Even during my amateur days, I already had this problem,” he said.
The problem persisted when he turned professional and Marcial said he could not fully utilize the strength of that hand for fear that it could get worse.
Towards the end of this month, Marcial will head back to America to have the hand checked by experts.
If everything goes well, he will kick off training for his fifth fight immediately after.
Last month, Marcial beat up Argentine Ricardo Villalba at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, to raise his record to 4-0 with two knockouts.
The plan is to expedite Marcial’s rise in the middleweight rankings so he could be set up to fight for a world title next year.
But his pro career might take a backseat again if he intends to fulfill his Olympic aspirations.
The Hangzhou Asian Games will be held in September-October and it’s going to serve as a qualifying tournament for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
“He still wants to fight in the Olympics,” Marcial’s wife Princess Galarpe-Marcial said.
“So, he might get one pro fight before the Asian Games.”
In the meantime, Marcial is taking it nice and easy while on vacation.
Pretty soon, it’s back to the hard grind.
