Eumir Marcial to scale down to 154 in the Pros?
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 12 Oct 2022
Sports Columnist par excellence Joaquin "Quinito" Henson reported recently that the handlers of Tokyo 2020 Oympic middleweight bronze medalist Eumir Felix Marcial are looking at the viability of him continuing to campaign in the pros one division lower at 154 lbs or the super welterweight.
This is after Marcial notched his third straight pro win by scoring a bloody 6 round unanimous decision over American Richard Pichardo in an overweight middleweight contest in the undercards of a triple world championship main event bouts the Dignity Health and Sports Park in Carson City, California.
Marcial was cut over the eye due to accidental head butt in the second round but it did not prevent him from pitching a shut-out points victory over the taller and bigger Pichardo who, like Marcial, came in a few pounds over the 160 lbs contracted weight limit.
However, it can be seen that he also struggled with the size and physicality of Pichardo throughout the contest as the American withstood his punching power and only his better fighting skills once again gave him the deserved points win as in his two previous pro bouts.
This prompted his handler MP Promotion boss Sean Gibbons to say that for Marcial to progress further in the pros, it might be better for him to continue his campaign in the paid ranks one division lower at super welterweight or 154 lbs where according to his trainer Jorge Capetillo his power would be more "awesome".
Capetillo said with the help of expert nutritionists, Marcial will undergo scientific physical examination and evaluation to determine his optimum weight level capacity and capability in relation to the proposed move to scale down to 154 lbs
Marcial underwent five inch stitching to close the cut and is now forced to rest until the end of the year before going back to training for his next bout. Gibbons had originally penciled him for a main supporting bout in a then prospective unification bout between Jerwin Ancajas and WBO super flyweight champion Kazuto Ioka in December in Japan. But with Ancajas losing to and then failing to regain his IBF title from Argentina's Fernando Martinez, that prospect also went out of the windows.
Now it is a question when he will be back in action in the pros. And at weight he will be continuing his career in the pros?
To be certain, Marcial will not be the first among former Olympic medalists or amateur standouts to be posed with the later question.
Almost as a rule, former amateur standouts from America and other Western or Westernized countries because they started young and are still growing, tended to turn pro in higher weight classes above where they used to fight in the amateurs. Perhaps with the sole exception of Oscar De La Hoya who won the Olympic gold at lightweight in 1992 Barcelona but debuted as super featherweight in the pros.
Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Leon and Michael Spinks, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roy Jones Jr, Evander Holyfield; Floyd Mayweather Jr down to Shakur Stevenson all debuted in the pros at least a class above their fighting weight divisions in the amateurs.
Among his notable contemporaries, at least two have earlier turned professional at divisions lower than the middleweight, namely Israil Madrimov of Uzbekistan who has since been campaigning quite successfully at welterweight and Tursynbay Kulakhmet of Kazakhstan who has had mixed results at super welterweight.
Marcial lost to Madrimov in the 2018 Asian Games semifinals in Indonesia at middleweight while Marcial defeated Kulakhmet in the middleweight semifinals of the 2019 World Amateur Championships in Russia.
Interestingly, Madrimov who has defeated Marcial in all their amateur meetings, is now among the leading contenders at welterweight class in the pros. Meanwhile, Kulakhmet won the WBC International title at super welterweight in only his third bout but his future as a pro hangs now in the balance after losing the same title to Manny Pacquiao aging contemporary Juan Carlos Abeu by knockout two fights later.
Those two have demonstrated that moving down in weight in the pros is not only possible but viable.
Such has been the trend particularly for former amateur boxers from Eastern European and Central Asian boxing nations who relied on modern sports science to make the strategy workable. Fighters like Vasiliy Lomachenko, Oleksander Usyk and Arthur Beterbiev debuted in the pros below their normal weight classes in the amateurs.
Hence, it could also be worth the try for Eumir Felix Marcial going forward in his pro career.
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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