ABAP opts to delist Marcial

MANILA, Philippines — ABAP president Marcus Manalo made the difficult decision to withdraw boxer Eumir Marcial from the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games despite the two-time Olympian breezing through his fight against Omar Huerta in San Diego, California, yesterday morning (Manila time).

Marcial landed a vicious counter right hook to the head and Huerta fell to take the full count in the third round. He landed 60 percent of his power punches and 22 of his connections were body shots. Huerta had never gone down before and entered the bout with a 15-1 record. At the time of the stoppage, judges Fernando Villarreal and Jose Cobian had it even, 19-all and judge Rogelio Chapa saw Huerta on top, 20-18.

“I’ve improved a lot with coach Kay (Koroma),” said Marcial. “Every day, he keeps correcting my mistakes. This is the outcome of our training. I learned from Manny Pacquiao to get strength from the Filipino people. Back in the Philippines, there was a public viewing and I knew my family was watching so I was going to do my best to win.”

Manalo said the flight from the US to Nagoya takes 20 hours and with a 16-hour time difference, it would be difficult for Marcial to be in condition for his first fight on Wednesday. “For sure, kulang siya sa tulog tapos our hotel is two hours away from the Asian Games Welcome Center and the venue is about 45 minutes away,” said Manalo. “Hindi nga siya bugbog but there’s the safety concern. It would be a risk. I spoke to Eumir and he told me if the fight was in California the next day, lalaban siya. We agreed not to push it. We have six other fighters on our team ready to go for gold.” Manalo said a consideration was Marcial would’ve fought in Nagoya in the 80kg division. Against Huerta, he scaled 160 1/2 pounds or 73kg. “The weight difference is large and Eumir would’ve faced bigger opponents in the Asian Games,” said Manalo.

The draw for boxing was held yesterday and Manalo took out Marcial from the entry list. Manalo, however, didn’t rule out the possibility of Marcial flying to Nagoya to provide moral support for the ABAP squad. Although he’s skipping the Asian Games, Marcial still has the 2028 LA Olympics in his sights. He’s expected to compete at the 6th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Riyadh on Dec. 11-21.