LAS VEGAS -- As soon as he got all gloved up, Manny Pacquiao’s eyes wandered around the Knuckleheads Boxing Gym on Tuesday looking for somebody from among the crowd composed of team members, friends, vloggers and the seven-man strong Filipino media.
Seeing that the guy he was looking for wasn’t in the building, he said something that prompted everyone who heard him to look for the fellow.
“Where is my boxer?”
The dude — Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Eumir Marcial — wasn’t aware that Pacquiao had arrived and he was just whiling away time inside his room in one of the mini-villas scattered around the sprawling property on Bermuda Lane.
In a few minutes, Marcial emerged from his room and went straight to the gym where Pacquiao was already getting warmed up.
Marcial had endeared himself to Pacquiao during the Los Angeles phase of his training camp for this Saturday night’s clash for the World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight crown of Mario Barrios at the MGM Grand.
So, when Pacquiao relocated to Sin City and picked the Sean Gibbons-owned Knuckleheads Boxing Gym to serve as his training facility, he went asking around for the unbeaten Marcial.
Last week, Pacquiao had told Marcial that in the event he progresses to become a world title challenger, he himself will train him.
“Give me three months to train so you can steadily adjust to my training style,” Pacquiao said.
Marcial is fighting underneath the Pacquiao-Barrios slugfest as he meets Bernard Joseph of the US in an eight-rounder.
Pacquiao was amazed at Marcial’s power and believes his fellow southpaw has what it takes to become a big name.
As he was shadow boxing on top of the ring, Marcial also displayed his wares with Buboy Fernandez holding the mitts.
“He has power but he lacks volume punching,” Fernandez said.
“You can’t just throw one-two-three combinations because in an actual fight, you’ll land just one. So, you have to develop the habit of throwing more punches,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao repeatedly showed Marcial exactly the way to throw a combo without getting hit even with a sneaky counter, something the Zamboanga native stressed was valuable.
“I have been idolizing him so for him to share his knowledge is just really something,” Marcial added.