Most fight fans in the United States might not recognize his name, but Jaime Quintana is behind the careers of two of the greatest fighters in the game and arguably the best brother tandem in the history of the sweet science. Quintana is the head of Romanza Boxing which co-promotes featherweight Juan Manuel Marquez and super bantamweight champion Rafael Marquez.
Quintana finds himself in the middle of one of the hottest questions in boxing right now, “Will Juan Manuel Marquez rematch with super featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao?” When asked directly, this was Quintana’s response, “We are hoping Marquez fights Pacquiao and waiting to see the result of the World Boxing Council’s (WBC) open negotiating period.”
While Pacquiao is The Ring magazine’s recognized champion at super featherweight, Juan Manuel is the WBC champion and Pacquiao his mandatory number one contender. On May 17th the WBC announced the open period for negotiations to a Marquez-Pacquiao bout, with the key players being Quintana’s Romanza Boxing, Golden Boy Promotions (the other half of the co-promoter in Juan Manuel’s career), and Top Rank Promotions (Pacquiao’s disputed promoter).
The icy business relationship between Top Rank and Golden Boy is well documented, all stemming over a legal battle over Pacquiao’s promotional rights, and seems to be the biggest impediment to a rematch to a May 2004 classic between the Filipino and Juan Manuel.
The likely hood of a rematch looked gloomier when last week it was reported that Manny Pacquiao wrote a letter to the WBC supposedly relinquishing his number one contender status with the organization, thus making the open negations period a mute point.
Next in line for Juan Manuel’s WBC crown would be fellow countryman Humberto Soto. Expectedly, Quintana showed no interest in a bout with Soto, who interestingly enough signed a promotional contract late last year.
“Boxing fans are not interested in seeing Juan Manuel fight with Soto,” Quintana told Boxing Confidential via phone. “I think the fights for Juan Manuel are rematches with Pacquiao or Marco Antonio Barrera.”
Juan Manuel Marquez captured the WBC championship from Marco Antonio Barrera by decision last March in a hotly contested and controversial fight. Barrera, also promoted by and a partner of Golden Boy Promotions, has not announced if he will retire from boxing or return to the ring.
September 15 has been marked as the date of Juan Manuel’s return to the ring and HBO has held the date for a televised boxing event. Fans of the sport can hope that Quintana, co-promoter and an uninvolved third party in the Top Rank-Golden Boy feud, might be able to broker a deal and bring the World Pacquiao-Marquez II.
