Roach: Marcial brings flashback of golden moment with Pacquiao
For Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, the sight of Tokyo Olympics-bound Eumir Marcial walking through the doors of his famed Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California has brought a flashback of golden moment in him when he was connected for the first time with Manny Pacquiao, his brightest and most popular student.
“When Eumir walked through the door into the upstairs gym, I flashed back to 2001 when Manny ( Pacquiao) first walked through the same door looking for someone to do mitts with him,” said Roach, a seven-time Trainer of the Year.
Marcial, who is now part of Pacquiao’s stable of fighters under MP Promotions headed by its president Sean Gibbons, felt the same way too.
“I felt like I was walking in Manny’s footsteps when Freddie was giving me the tour of the original part of Wild Card and telling me stories about training with Manny. To see the Philippines flag so prominently displayed made me very proud. And working out with Freddie was a great learning experience. I cannot wait to return for our next session,” said Marcial.
Last Thursday, Marcial has started his training at the Wild Card Gym, which has been the training camp of eight- division world champion Pacquiao since 2001.
Roach has agreed to take the Zamboanga-native Marcial under his wings while the Filipino boxer prepares himself for next year’s Olympic Games in Japan.
The 24- Marcial did four rounds of mitts with Roach, who see a lot of potentials on the Filipino Olympian.
“Eumir has a lot of power and talent but we have a lot of work to do. It’s a very unusual situation working on a fighter’s professional debut knowing that we will be preparing for the Olympics after he turns professional. I really hope we can be the first to bring a world title and Olympic gold to the Philippines. That would be very special,” said Roach.