The viewership projections are staggering, but Mexican super featherweight boxer Juan Manuel Marquez does not need to see them.
The street vendors in Mexico City already gave him a pretty good idea of how many living rooms he will be in tonight. Marquez, who will be defending his WBC super featherweight title against Rocky Juarez at Desert Diamond Casino before an estimated television audience of about 24 million fans in Mexico, experienced a different reception upon returning home last spring after defeating Marco Antonio Barrera in Las Vegas.
“He’s told us stories that only the hardcore boxing fans would recognize him before,” said Eric Gomez, matchmaker for Golden Boy Promotions. “But after that fight people called him in the streets, and vendors would give him free food, free tacos, all these things.”
Tonight, there will be plenty of other interest around the world, too. Not only will about 2,500 people be on hand at the Diamond Center, which had fewer than 100 tickets left as of Friday afternoon, but there is the huge Mexican over-the-air audience; a half-million or so in the United States expected to watch on Showtime, according to an official of the subscription network; and another massive cluster of fans sitting around TVs in the Philippines.
There, fans are curious to see whether Marquez is really worthy of taking on their national hero, Manny Pacquiao, in a fight that is likely to happen if Marquez can beat Juarez.
“There’s a lot of speculation whom he might be fighting next,” Gomez said. “There’s a lot of implications. A lot of questions are going to be asked after this fight.”
But first, Marquez (47-3-1, 35 KOs) must figure a way to get past Juarez (27-3, 19 KOs), a native of Houston who lost two 12-round decisions to Barrera last year. Marquez has insisted throughout his preparation for the fight that he is focused on Juarez.
“Juarez, and nothing else,” Marquez said. “Pacquiao is only in the future.”
Marquez’s co-promoter, Jaime Quintana, said Marquez cannot afford to talk about anything beyond today’s fight, knowing he could look bad and suffer damage to his career if he does not beat Juarez.
Marquez wants to prove a point, whether it is against Juarez, Pacquiao or anybody else.
“He wants to look spectacular, and he knows it’s an important fight for him, because he wants Pacquiao next,” Gomez said. “And he knows Rocky Juarez went the distance with Barrera twice. He told us that he wants to make a statement that he’s the best at 130 pounds, bar none. He wants to prove that he can beat and knock this guy out.”
The interest in tonight’s main event, plus a co-main featuring WBC featherweight belt-holder Robert Guerrero (20-1-1, 13 KOs) of Gilroy, Calif., and Mexico City’s Martin Honorio (24-3-1, 12 KOs), is not only benefiting the broadcasters and Desert Diamond Casino.
It could also help Golden Boy Promotions land promotional rights to Desert Diamond for another year, after its contract expires with tonight’s show.
Treena Parvello, marketing director of Desert Diamond, said the casino would seek promoters’ bids for 2008 and make a decision sometime next month. But like last year, when Golden Boy delivered a compelling “Boxing World Cup” between fighters from Mexico and Thailand for their final Desert Diamond show, Golden Boy may have bought itself some additional negotiating leverage.
Golden Boy has been using the Desert Diamond to showcase many of its up-and-coming fighters in front of audiences that are often primarily Hispanic.
“We’ve been in talks, and we have some sort of understanding,” Gomez said. “We had the World Cup, and this is probably bigger.”
