Trend Bodes Well For Marcial's Pro Career
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 19 Aug 2020
We can look forward and up to Eumir Felix Marcial's professional boxing career given the ever narrowing gap between pro and simonpure boxers as a result of the recent evolutionary reforms in the amateur fight sport.
This transformational development is very evident in the way such former amateur standouts as Vasily Lomachenko, Anthony Joshua, Oleksander Usyk, Josh Taylor, Shakur Stevenson and very recently Uzbekistan's Murodjon Akhmadaliev have been able to become and establish themselves as world pro boxing champions in record times.
It has been a drastic improvement from the past trend where former amateur standouts as Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael Spinks, Kostya Tzsyu, Oscar de la Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. took in excess of four years to become world champion and stamp their mark in the pros.
The trend in the middleweight class where Felix Marcial is fighting is likewise encouraging.
Former 2004 Athens Olympic silver medalist and 2003 Bangkok World Amateur champion Gennady Golovkin took just about four years from his pro debut in May 2006 to win the first of his four middleweight titles in August 2010.
Former 2012 London Olympics gold medalist Ryota Murata also took just about four years from his pro debut in April 2013 to win a share of the world middleweight championship in October 2017.
The 2016 Rio Olympic medalist was Cuban Arlen Lopez who remained in the amateurs. But the man he defeated for the gold Uzbekistan's Bekhtemir Melekuziev is now a US based pro with a 5-0, 4 KO record fighting in the super middleweight class.
Marcial, the 2019 World Amateur silver medalist and 2020 Amman pre Olympic qualifier Asia Oceania champion will represent the Philippines in the rescheduled 2021 Tokyo Olympics. He is currently ranked number three in the world among the top amateur middleweight fighters just behind Ukraine's Oleksander Khrisniak, the 2017 world and 2019 European champion and Arlen Lopez.
Despite turning pro and signing up with MP Promotion owned by world welterweight champion Senator Manny Pacquiao, Marcial has his eyes on winning the Olympic gold in Tokyo next year.
Marcial is on winning tear, suffering his lone loss to Russia's Gleb Baskhi in the middleweight finals of the 2019 World Championship held in wintry Etekarinburg. His only other prominent defeat was to Khrisniak by disqualification back in 2017.
His recent victims included Abilkhan Amankul, Tursynbay Khulamet and Aishish Kumar who are also world rated.
Another source of encouragement for Marcial are the current progress in the pros of the two other notable opponents he had faced in his earlier stint at welterweight---Uzbek Israil Madrimov whom he beat once in three fights and Kazakhstan's Daniyar Yuleussinov to whom he lost twice, in major tournaments.
Madrimov (born 16 February 1995) is an Uzbek professional boxer. As an amateur, while representing Uzbekistan, he won a silver medal in the welterweight division at the 2014 Asian Games and gold in the middleweight division at the 2018 edition.
He is currently 6-0, 5 by knockout and won the vacant WBA intercontinental super welterweight title in his very pro debut on November 24, 2018 via 6th round TKO of Mexico's Vladimir Hernandez.
Madrimov recently figured in a controversial fight with American veteran Eric Walker recently in Tulsa, where he apparently scored a knockout or at least a knockdown in the ninth round only for the referee to rule it as a slip. The Uzbek had to settle for a unanimous decision win in his first twelve round fight.
Daniyar Yeleussinov (born 13 March 1991) is a Kazakh professional boxer. As an amateur he competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, winning a gold medal in 2016. He also won gold medals at the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games; the 2013 World Championships; and silver at the 2015 World Championships.
Yeleussinov is currently 9-0, 5 KOs fighting in the US as a welterweight. He is projected as a serious title contender in the next two years.
These should serve as additional motivation and inspiration for Eumir Felix Marcial.
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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