After SEAG gold, Eumir Marcial dreams of fighting ‘middleweight monster’ Golovkin

MANILA, Philippines – Eumir Marcial has won two gold medals at the Southeast Asian Games and was an AIBA Youth world champion, but his ultimate dream would be to get in the ring with the reigning “monster of the middleweights”, Gennady Golovkin.

The 21-year-old Marcial of Zamboanga City stopped by Rappler’s office with fellow 2017 SEA Games gold medalist John Marvin and silver medalist Mario Fernandez to talk about their stints in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in August, as well as what’s coming up ahead for them.

“It’s my dream to fight Golovkin. Many fighters want to fight Golovkin,” said Marcial, the 2017 SEA Games middleweight gold medalist, of Golovkin, who will defend his WBC, IBF, WBA and Ring magazine middleweight titles against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 16.

“Hopefully someday I will fight Golovkin at middleweight. I will smash him,” added Marcial with a laugh.

Marcial grew into his middleweight frame from his days as a skinny teen winning the junior bantamweight gold at the 2011 AIBA Junior World Championships. He also won gold in the 2015 SEA Games as a welterweight.

Of course that remains a pipe dream for now as Golovkin is a pro champion and Marcial is an amateur (or open boxer as AIBA calls them now), and at age 35, Golovkin may be near the end of his career.

Golovkin did fight once in the Philippines, defeating Fil-Am Christopher Camat to win gold at the 2004 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships in Palawan.

When asked for their prediction for Golovkin-Alvarez, Fernandez and Marcial picked the unbeaten Kazakh Golovkin while Marvin says the fight will be decided by “who wants it the most.”

The next major boxing tournament for the Philippines is the Asian Games, which take place August 18-September 2, 2018 in Jakarta.

For now Marcial is planning to spend time with his family in Zamboanga and then have his injured left hand examined when he returns to Manila.

“I hope I can relax and forget boxing sometimes – even for a little while – because it’s in our minds the whole year. This SEA Games is my 4th tournament [this year],” says Marcial. – Rappler.com