Perfect 10: Gibbons raves about Marcial’s SEAG stint

American boxing man Sean Gibbons was over the moon with the solid showing of Eumir Marcial in the 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA)Games and was heartbroken when Weljon Mindioro could not advance to the gold medal match.

Gibbons swears he kind of expected Marcial, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist, to run over the opposition given the quality of opposition in the biennial regional meet and was sad that Mindoro had a rude awakening in his SEA Games debut.

“Amateur boxing and pro boxing are different,” Gibbons said from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where a huge event headlined by Naoya Inoue is taking place Saturday.

“In the amateurs, landing punches is the most important and not much on knockouts (like in the pros),” he said, noting how Mindoro struggled against his fast-moving Vietnamese rival.

Marcial, who had an extensive amateur career before entering the punch-for-pay business, knocked out his Vietnamese foe then got past his Indonesian finals for the gold medal.

His victory was the lone top podium spot for the Philippine team as all the finalists got beat by the Thais.

Gibbons represents Marcial and Mindoro, both unbeaten KO punchers.

But the Las Vegas-based boxing man insists that Marcial’s full potential is not being fulfilled since he is not fighting in his natural weight class.

“He is a middleweight and is forced to go up in weight,” he said, noting how it was in Paris when he had to fight at 80 kilograms instead of 75 kilograms.

“The guys he’s been fighting are really naturally bigger guys,” he added.

With the win, Marcial remains on track in his quest to win a world crown late this year.

Gibbons is giving him three fights that would grease his path towards a title shot.

As for Mindoro, it’s back to the pros as well and probably wiser following his surprising defeat in the SEA Games.