Juan Manuel Marquez wants to talk only about immediate business. That means Rocky Juarez Saturday night at Desert Diamond Casino south of Tucson. Lose there, and Marquez might not have anything left to talk about it.
But there are two subjects Marquez is trying to ignore. He can’t.
There’s Manny Pacquiao, who has been somewhere on Marquez’s horizon ever since the two fought to a draw in 2004.
And there’s retirement, which looms larger for Marquez as he as gets older. At 34 and after 51 fights, it’s time to wonder when.
But Marquez, the World Boxing Council’s super-featherweight champion, won’t guess about the end, at least not for as long as there is another shot at Pacquiao and the money a rematch might generate.
It’s hard to figure out what Pacquiao plans to do. No surprise there. The Filipino, whose unanimous decision over Marco Antonio Barrera kept him at the top of many pound-for-pound debates, is notoriously unpredictable. His plans are like his contracts. Pacquiao, who once had promotional deals at the same time with Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya, has signed several. But he could fulfill one.
Pacquiao has sent out mixed messages. He said he might jump from super featherweight (130 pounds) to lightweight (135). That could mean Juan Diaz, the tireless lightweight from Houston, also Juarez’s hometown. Then, he told Arum that for now he would stay at the weight he has dominated in every fight other than Marquez.
Marquez, a quiet and competent professional, can only wait and resist the temptation to wonder.
“Talk about opponents and rematches don’t matter to him,” said De La Hoya, who translated Marquez’s Spanish last week in a conference call, but only after an introduction that included a mention of the obvious: Pacquiao. “He knows the job at hand is a very tough one.”
Meanwhile, talk about retirement is premature for Marquez, who has supplanted Barrera and Erik Morales as Mexico’s best. Anonymity has been Marquez’s biggest foe.
It will be there again Saturday in a Showtime-televised bout on the same day that Home Box Office’s super-middleweight showdown between Joe Calzaghe and Mikkel Kessler in Wales.
Calzaghe and Kessler are getting a lot of attention. In the pound-for-pound debate, however, Marquez is more prominent than either. After Pacquiao and/or Floyd Mayweather Jr., there is Marquez at third.
Yet, prominence defined by big headlines and bigger-money figures to elude Marquez for as long as Pacquiao eludes a rematch. If Marquez beats a younger (27) Juarez, talk and perhaps pressure for a rematch will build. For Marquez, it’s an opportunity that makes him fight on.
“I feel great,” said Marquez, who last March was at least as thorough as Pacquiao in scoring a unanimous decision over Barrera. “I don’t feel like I’m about to retire or nothing. I cannot tell you at what point my career is. I am only saying that after 14 years of boxing, fighting Rocky Juarez will be awesome.”
And perhaps the penultimate step toward the biggest moment in an unappreciated career. The ‘Ghost’ In Saturday’s other title fight at Desert Diamond, Robert Guerrero hopes to get in line for Manny Pacquiao or perhaps the Juan Manuel Marquez-Rocky Juarez winner with a defense of his International Boxing Federation title against Martin Honorio.
Guerrero has an appropriate nickname for a week that includes Halloween. He’s known as “The Ghost,” a nickname he has had since he was kid.
“Because of my speed, I was able to be there, throw a punch and then disappear, just like a ghost,” said Guerrero, who is counting on an appearance Saturday that will make him a visible contender at one of boxing’s more competitive weights. Short shot Juan Manuel Marquez didn’t want to talk about Manny Pacquiao. But, yes, he watched Pacquiao’s decision over Marco Antonio Barrera on Oct. 6. Was he impressed? Not exactly.
“He was waiting for the explosion that everybody expected,” Marquez said through an interpreter when asked to rate the latest from Pacquiao, whose reputation is built on power. “But it didn’t happen.”
