Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez is already on the short list among active fighters for immediate entry into the Hall of Fame. Still, there’s something ultimately unfulfilling about the fighter’s nineteen-year career.
Despite five world titles in three different weight classes, the master technician from Mexico City is a legendary fighter without a true, career-defining marquee win.
Marquez’s list of career wins includes victories over Manuel Medina, Derrick Gainer, Orlando Salido, Marco Antonio Barrera, Rocky Juarez, Joel Casamayor, Juan Diaz, and Michael Katsidis. For sure, this is an impressive list. But, for a fighter with a skill-set worthy of all-time status, the resume is not what it should be.
Many point to poor management early in his career and a tediously slow rise to the top.
Others say that Marquez has already scored the marquee victories of his career, referring to his three close and controversial bouts with Manny Pacquiao. On the record, he stands 0-2-1 against the Filipino legend. However, many experts and analysts would insist that Marquez should actually be 2-0-1 against Pacquiao. Along the same line of thought, Marquez’s 2006 loss to Chris John in Indonesia has also been widely disputed by most people in the sport.
It’s hard to determine whether these controversial decisions will be taken into consideration when assessing his legacy, but they will always be part of his official record.
At 38 years of age, there aren’t many fights left in the career of the talented counter-puncher and time is running out for Marquez to reaffirm his status as one of this generation’s elite.
On April 14th, Marquez is scheduled to face the Ukraine’s fringe-contending Serhiy Fedchenko in a junior welterweight bout that can only be seen as a tune up and/or trial balloon at 140 lbs. After Fedchenko, there are plenty of solid fights to make at the junior welterweight limit.
The winner of the May 19th Lamont Peterson-Amir Khan championship rematch would likely be the ideal target for a fighter looking to accomplish a lot within a short period of time. The winner of June’s Lucas Matthysse-Humberto Soto bout would also be a decent choice for the time-strapped fighter. If these fights can’t be arranged, there’s always the winner of Erik Morales-Danny Garcia coming up on March 24th.
Still, even if Marquez managed to get (and beat) one of the winners from above, none would give him that big legacy-defining win.
More and more, it looks as though Marquez and his fans will have to be satisfied with a string of very solid wins and three career losses out of six that could easily have been victories.
Paul Magno was a licensed official in the state of Michoacan, Mexico and a close follower of the sport for more than thirty years. He is also a contributor to Fox Sports. In the past, Paul has done work for Inside Fights, The Queensberry Rules and Eastside Boxing.
Sources:
Boxrec, Fight Records and Schedule
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