Working vacation: Marcial secures Gibbons approval for Asian Games bid

Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Eumir Marcial is free to travel to Nagoya, Japan, to compete in the 20th Asian Games but his American promoter insists on one thing.

Marcial battles Ulises Huerta this Saturday night (Sunday morning in Manila) at the Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, California.

“(If) he beats Huerta easy, he is on vacation for a few days,” said Sean Gibbons, who runs Marcial’s affairs in the professional ranks.

“He can do whatever while on vacation,” the Las Vegas-based fight figure added.

Marcial is entered in the 80 kilogram division (light-heavyweight) in the Asian Games and assuming he gets past Huerta with ease, he will take the first available flight from Los Angeles to Nagoya the next day.

Competitions in boxing begin on 23 September.

Marcial’s clash with Huerta takes place in the middleweight class and it will be his first pro match in almost a year.

In October last year, the 30-year-old Marcial carved out a majority decision win over Venezuelan Eddy Colmenares in a bloody war at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The victory, though controversial as Marcial hit the floor twice, raised his win-loss record to 7-0 with four knockouts.

Huerta, also 30 years old and hailing from San Ysidro, California, packs a 15-1 card with 13 knockouts.

The Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) leadership swears Marcial has to emerge from the Huerta encounter unscathed for him to see action in the Asian Games.

Earlier, the ABAP had pinned its hopes on Weljon Mindoro, another pro puncher, to represent the country in the 80 kg class.

But Mindoro suffered a devastating knockout loss against Carlos Ocampo at the Galen Center in Los Angeles on 30 August, promoting the ABAP to revert to Marcial, its original entry in the division.

The ABAP is hoping to out an end to a 16-year gold medal drought in Asian Games boxing.

Last time a boxing gold medal was won in the Asian Games happened in 2010 in Guangzhou courtesy of flyweight Rey Saludar.