WBC Super Featherweight Champion Juan Manuel Marquez, 48-3, 35 KO?s, scored a lopsided unanimous decision by scores of: 118-110, 117-111, and 120-108, over challenger Rocky Juarez, 27-4, 19 KO?s, to retain his title at the Desert Diamond Hotel and Casino in Tuscon, Arizona on Showtime Championship Boxing.
Marquez started attacking Juarez early and controlled the pace of the bout with his jab. Juarez, a Houston native, never looked as if he could get into the rhythm of the bout for more than minor portions of each round. As if his night was not difficult enough, Juarez suffered a huge cut from an accidental clash of heads in the first round and was off balance all night.
After Marquez established his jab, he added a vicious body attack that further confused Juarez and won Marquez the middle portion of the fight. At certain points in the late rounds, Juarez began to land an occasional hard right hand. One of the reasons might have been that he was urged on between rounds by trainer Ronnie Shields to press for the knockout.
At that point in the fight, Juarez?s eye was busted into a blood geyser and he had not decisively controlled a single solitary round of the fight. The circumstances caused the pressure to mount to a peak at which Juarez was forced to go for broke. The only problem is that that strategy left him wide open for punishment. Juarez landed some hard hooks that left Marquez with a bruised mask, but Marquez paid him back with killer combinations that ranged through all types of punches. Sometimes, Marquez worked the jab. Other times, he would use his precise right handed missile, crunching uppercuts or hooks to the body and head.
Marquez was still busted at the end of the fight and he gave Juarez his due for the rough tussle. “I knew Juarez would be tough,” said a multi-bruised Marquez. “He fought like a champion. I’m very happy from this fight.? He continued by making a statement that was surprising to no one: ?Now I want Manny Pacquiao.”
The showdown with Pacquiao, who recently defeated Marquez rival Marco Antonio Barrera, is one of the most supported fights in the boxing community. A certain pay per view card, the fight is the biggest in the super featherweight division and might be the biggest in all of Boxing?s smaller weight divisions. A Marquez-Pacquiao bout would be a rematch of their dramatic and controversial fight in 2004. That match featured Marquez hitting the mat three times in the first round before he got up and out boxed Pacquiao for the remainder of the fight. The scores came out as a draw, with one of the cards failing to score the first round 10-6. Between that odd detail, the ebb and flow of the fight and the courageous comeback by Marquez, the business left unfinished has spent years compiling into a bigger and bigger fight. “Pacquiao said he’s the Mexican killer,” said Marquez. “He hasn’t proved that to me.”
Even Oscar De La Hoya stated after the fight that the rematch is the ?only? fight at 130 pounds. ?If you want to be called the best at 130 pounds, you have to go through Marquez,? said De La Hoya. ?It?s a match-up that the whole world wants to watch. It?s a match-up that has to happen.?
As for Juarez, it is time for him to return to the drawing table and assess his next career move. “I tried my best,” said Juarez. “I got cut from a head butt in the first round and that made it tough for the rest of the fight. I give Marquez credit for giving me the shot. I respect him a lot. I like to think I’ve fought the best, and Marquez definitely is. I still plan on winning a title sooner or later. Rocky will be back.”
Overall, Juarez proved that he was a tough fighter up against too much class. Marquez maintained distance the whole fight, never allowing Juarez in the front door. Between the cut and the damage done, Juarez was frustrated the whole night though. “A lot of times when I blocked punches with my left hand, it was affecting my cut,” he said. “I’d look at him and see blood, but I wouldn’t see a cut. It made me wonder how bad (the) cut was.”
Marquez made it sound afterward as though his plan the entire time was to stick and move, never giving Juarez a target. “I wanted to fight an intelligent fight,” Marquez said. “My only plan was to make it a smart fight.”
That same intelligent style helped him in his first fight with Pacquiao, when he was able to counter punch his way to victory in most of the rounds. The questions that looms now, with regard to their fight, is whether or not Marquez can box Pacquiao in the same manner in which he originally fought the Filipino champion or if Pacquiao can now slip past Marquez?s guard and land at will. Pacquiao has boxed much better in recent fights and as the faster hands. He might now be intelligent enough to also carry the day on the score cards. At risk in the rematch, which may happen in March, would be the Ring Magazine Super Featherweight Championship and possibly top five status in the Ring Magazine Pound for Pound Rankings. Currently, Box Rec has Pacquiao and Marquez in the top two slots of the Super Featherweight rankings and at eight and eleven in the Pound for Pound rankings.
On the under card of this bout, top prospect southpaw and IBF Featherweight Champion Robert Guerrero, 21-1, 14 KO?s, destroyed challenger Martin Honorio, 24-4, 12 KO?s, with a straight left hand that placed the native Mexican on his back and made him too wobbly to continue.?It?s just boxing,? Guerrero said at the press conference. ?You got to be sharp all the time. I landed a great shot on him and he didn?t get up from up it. That?s why they say you got to protect yourself at all times, because one punch can change everything. ?When I landed that shot and I looked at him, he was hurt pretty bad. You could see it in his face. I knew right away, if he got up, I was going to finish him.? Honorio had to try twice to make the Super Featherweight Weight limit. The fight was Guerrero?s first defense of his belt, and was a difficult fight for him to take. The victory is bittersweet, as Guerrero now has to be ready to watch his wife go through chemotherapy. His wife was recently diagnosed with leukemia. The hopes of RSR are with the Guerrero’s.
