Nothing ever comes easy to a current Ring Magazine lightweight world champion Juan Manuel Marquez. After a brief amateur career, where he amassed a record of 35-1, he had to postpone his professional debut for three years due to a spinal injury. Marquez lost his first professional bout in May of 1993 to a Javier Duran by disqualification; due to a head butt. He then won 29 fights in a row and made a name for himself among hardcore boxing fans participating in some very memorable battles at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California. Marquez was not able to take advantage of his first title shot opportunity in September of 1999, when he lost a controversial decision to Freddie Norwood in a thrilling fight where both guys were down. Juan Manuel won his first title in February of 2003 in Las Vegas by stopping a game veteran Manuel Medina in the seventh stanza and thus obtaining an IBF featherweight belt.
Even though Marquez was considered by many ringside experts on a level of his contemporaries like Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales and a tough out for any body, he fought in virtual obscurity while they enjoyed the fame and adulation of their fans.
In May of 2004 Marquez met his match and supposedly earned a ticket to stardom battling a Pilipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao to a controversial draw in a bout that both fans and ringside observers will debate for years to come.Despite being down three times in the first round, Marquez displayed his warrior spirit and the skills of a true champion: he used his sharp counterpunching to control the majority of the late rounds and thus earned a draw in a real blood bath and a sure candidate for a fight of the year. This bout had everything that fans craved: blood, drama, suspense, sustained action, great technical skills and a controversy. As tremendous as this battle was in the ring, it generated just as much excitement and disputes outside the squared circle. Camps were evenly divided arguing that the Mexican warrior called Dinamito deserved the victory because he controlled majority of the late rounds as the other side contended that the first round should have been scored 10-6 because of the three knock downs thus giving the edge to the Pac-Man. This situation had a rematch written all over it, but Marquez let his pride get the best of him demanding an equal cut and turned down a $750,000 to settle the score.
Pacquiao then engaged in a brilliant trilogy with Erik Morales while Marquez lost his title in Indonesia to Chris John earning only $30,000 in the process. After coming home and licking his wounds, Marquez had to put together several very impressive wins that included a unanimous decision victory over Marco Antonio Barrera and a thorough domination of Olympic silver medalist Rocky Juarez to get back to his nemesis Manny Pacquiao four years later. Their second encounter fought at super featherweight limit, was just as dynamic and exciting as the first one but resolved nothing.
Even though Pacquiao was declared a winner by a split decision, the fight was so close that it created more controversy and more debates.This time Marquez’s promoter Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions guaranteed Pacquiao six million dollars for a rematch, but Manny wanted no part of it: “I don’t think so, this business is over,” said Pacquiao, then he moved up to lightweight and demolished determined but limited David Diaz.
Even though Marquez lost the second battle on the scorecards, his status in the mystical pound for pound rankings was elevated due to his tremendous performance against the man who is now considered a pound for pound king. Marquez has to get everything the hard way and all he wants now is to settle the score with Manny, so he jumped up to lightweight and knocked out a Ring Magazine champion Joel Casamayor in a spectacular fashion. If you were in Las Vegas for that fight last September you would know that Marquez has finally earned his respect and the hearts of his fans; they went completely insane at the conclusion of that battle.
But that was not enough; Manny has not looked back, he jumped up two more weight classes to welterweight and destroyed a faded Oscar De La Hoya to a comple surprise of many so called experts. Pac- Man’s next challenge is a junior welterweight king Ricky Hatton in May of this year. Whatever the result of that fight will be, Marquez still wants Pacquiao, but before he can zero in on his ultimate goal there is a very substantial obstacle in a form of a former lightweight champion and a young lion, Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz.
Marquez and Diaz are scheduled to do battle this Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, a town where Baby Bull grew up and calls his home. This is a very serious challenge for Marquez. Aside from a hostile crowd, Juan Manuel will have to face a significantly younger, naturally bigger and stronger and a very aggressive challenger, but he would not have it any other way. This is a huge fight all by itself: fans and media are salivating over it and so are the sanctioning bodies, since Nate Campbell lost three of his belts on the scales last week. Besides competing for a Ring Magazine lightweight championship currently held by Marquez ,WBA has already sanctioned this as the title fight and you might see more belts to be on the line come fight night. This is definitely a very exciting match up as the outcome is so hard to predict.”I go back and forth on this fight every day,” said Robert Diaz, a matchmaker for Golden Boy Promotions:” One day I like Diaz, who is younger and bigger and stronger, next day I like Marquez, who has more experience and who is a superb counter puncher. This is exactly the kind of fight that is good for the fans.”
At the age of 35 Marquez has not lost a step and seems to be on the very top of his game. Does he have enough gas left in his tank to handle a brute force and relentless aggression of Baby Bull Diaz? If styles make fights, this one is an aggressive volume puncher against a sharp counter puncher and is sure to thrill all.
So if Marquez could get bye Diaz this Saturday, he will be that much closer to glory and to his ultimate goal of challenging Manny Pacquiao for the third and hopefully a final time.
“I am not saying they will never fight again,” said Bob Arum, promoter for Pacquiao, after the second fight:” But you have to let it bake for a while.”
If this is baking, I am going to sign up for a cooking class. Ha…ha?
Marquez, with the record of 49 wins, 4 losses and one draw with 36 knock outs, has one quality that fascinates me and bothers me at the same time; it is his complete inability to accept defeat. Just ask him and with four losses on his record, he will tell you that he never legitimately lost a fight. I would have to consider it a huge defect of character in a regular person, but with Marquez it is a quality that makes him a very special fighter: he does not believe that any body in the world could beat him and he knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is the best. That is why I have to believe that with all the obstacles ahead, Marquez will find a way to meet Pacquiao in a squared circle once again.
Meanwhile brace yourself for Marquez versus Diaz, this Saturday at the Toyota Center in Houston. This contest is a must see TV and will be televised live by HBO Championship Boxing.
