Marcial comes home

Paris Olympics qualifier Eumir Marcial returns home Wednesday morning after almost two months of intense training in the United States.

His readiness for the Olympics will have a dry run when he fights for the fifth time as a professional against Thoedsak Sinam of Thailand on 23 March at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

The heavy-handed southpaw touches down at 6:50 a.m. on board a United Airlines flight from San Francisco accompanied by wife Princess and trainer Demler Zamora.

Sean Gibbons, who runs the affairs of Marcial via MP Promotions, said Kay Koroma was supposed to join the Filipino puncher but when the fight was moved from the original date of 16 March to 23 March, a conflict in his schedule hindered the plan.

It was Koroma who presided over Marcial’s workouts at the DLX Gym in Las Vegas for close to eight weeks.

Marcial’s arrival in the Philippines is timely.

Just last Tuesday, two other Filipino boxers — female fighters Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas — qualified for Paris during a qualifying tournament in Italy.

The next and last Olympic qualifying takes place in late May until early June in Bangkok.

Marcial secured a spot in Paris after his runner-up finish in the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

After the fight with Sinam, Marcial intends to join his fellow national teammates in a combined camp and competition at Colorado Springs in April.

The Paris Olympics takes the spotlight from 26 July until 11 August.

Marcial, who took the bronze in the middleweight class in Tokyo in 2021, will fight in the light-heavyweight category in the French capital.