Top Filipino middleweight Eumir Marcial has a tough choice to make.
Fight in the Asian Games or see action in the undercard of Manny Pacquiao’s rematch with Floyd Mayweather in September on Netflix?
Sean Gibbons, who holds the promotional rights over the Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist, told DAILY TRIBUNE that Marcial should be on his way back to Las Vegas anytime soon.
“Looking to get him a fight in May,” said Gibbons, who wants Marcial on that high-profile event Netflix is staging at Sphere in Las Vegas on 19 September.
After the May and September fights, Gibbons said a world title shot should be in the pipeline for the heavy-handed southpaw from Zamboanga.
The 30-year-old Marcial is also being wooed by the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) to represent the country in the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya running from 19 September to 4 October.
Holding a 7-0-0 win-loss-draw record with four knockouts, Marcial last fought as a professional in late-October when he beat Venezuelan banger Nery Colmenares in a brutal ten-rounder at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
As an amateur, Marcial won the gold medal in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok last December.
“Got big things in store for Eumir this year,” said Gibbons, who signed up the fighter in 2020.
The prospects of being seen on Netflix — underneath a massive event like the Pacquiao-Mayweather rematch — will be hard to ignore given its magnitude.
Gibbons said he has talked with the ABAP about letting Marcial represent internationally from time to time.
The ABAP has leaned on Marcial’s veteran presence through the years.
However, the Asian Games in Japan is not a qualifier for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and the Olympic qualifiers won’t be happening until next year.
Still, Marcial has a sacred vow in the Asian Games, having only won a bronze in 2018 in Jakarta and a silver in 2023 in Hangzhou.
Given these facts, Marcial has to make a tough decision soon.