WEDDING’S over and the honeymoon will be brief. Eumir Felix Marcial will be back in the gym very soon.
“My next goal is to return to training and prepare for my next fight, whether it will be an amateur or professional fight,” Marcial told BusinessMirror during a break in the reception for his wedding to long-time girlfriend, now Mrs. Princess Malarpe Marcial, at the Pico de Loro resort in Nasugbu, Batangas, on Thursday night.
Marcial said he will be joining his fellow national boxers in the Baguio City training camp which the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines will open in November to train its athletes for the world women’s championships in Istanbul in December.
But returning as a pro is also tops in his agenda.
“I think I will fight in the pro after my wedding and a couple days of rest. For the meantime, I’ll take that opportunity to train with my fellow national boxers in Baguio City,” the 25-year-old Philippine Air Force sergeant said.
Marcial clinched a middleweight bronze medal in men’s boxing at the Tokyo Olympics. He won his professional debut, a four-rounder, against American Andrew Whitfield in Los Angeles last December.
“Instead of spending the holidays in Zamboanga City, me and my wife are thinking of flying to the US and resume my training there,” he said. “Let’s see what happens, but for now, I really need to go to the gym and get to my usual form.”
He is under contract with Senator Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotion and also expects to fly to Los Angeles and train at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym after his Baguio City sortie.
Marcial said he gained some weight but remains in the vicinity of 69 to 75 kgs.
“I’m still in good condition because I keep training on my own,” he said.
“It could be a six-rounder or eight-rounder next, I will be ready,” Marcial said of his second pro fight.
Marcial said that like his fellow Tokyo Olympians, Paris 2024 is a priority.
“If they give me the opportunity to fight in next year’s Vietnam Southeast Asian Games and Hangzhou Asian Games, I’ll go for it,” he said. “And of course, fighting for the gold in the Paris Olympics remains to be my greatest dream.”
Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz and silver medalists Carlo Paalam and Nesthy Petecio graced the Marcials’ wedding, along with Philippine Olympic Committee President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino and his fellow national team members and coaches.
During the short program after the wedding, Marcial narrated how he met and fell in love with his wife.
“We were in the dining hall for athletes at Rizal Memorial [Sports Complex] for lunch [nine years ago] when I tried to make my emotions known to her,” he said. “What I thought of was for me to exchange plates with her, I was nervous and I couldn’t think of anything else.”
That brought the house down.