With a whisper, ?Wow? was the only word that came out of my mouth. This, of course, came after I had the undeniable privilege of watching a true man and professional fighter in Juan Manuel ?The Master? Marquez. I have so much to say about this fighter, who is now finally going to get his just due as a great fighter of both his generation and of all time. Simply put, he is a master at his craft. I have a feeling that being the type of man he is that Marquez would be a master of whatever business he got involved in. It just so happens that his business is the fight game.
First, let?s get this out of the way before we go into the performance Marquez put on Saturday night. Will he get the fight and payday that he deserves with Manny Pacquiao? Only time will tell. However, it is very telling that it took the ?Pac-Man? so long to commit to their second fight. Before that rematch, Freddie Roach was said that Marquez is the toughest fight for his charge from a stylistic standpoint, which is the truth. After 24 rounds of close fighting, one thing has become clear to me; Juan Manuel Marquez is to Manny Pacquiao as Oscar De La Hoya was to Felix Trinidad.
An intelligent fighter who lays down the blueprint on how to outbox a great fighter who, in turn, can fight within his style fantastically.
But as the Golden One had trouble reaping success with his game plan, Bernard Hopkins adjusted to ?Tito.? I truly believe that Marquez will always have just enough trouble with Pacquiao?s speed and size that it offsets anything that the latter does from an intelligent generalship standpoint. I?ve said it time and time again; it?s going to take a fighter who is just as intelligent as Marquez is, as well as one who compares physically and is similar in speed and precision punching. That man beat Marquez in September of 2009 in his return fight (more on him later).
Getting back to Marquez, while other fighters, as part of the Haymon Boxing Organization (As Steve Kim reasonably coined), are begging for big fights, Marquez proved again that he deserves everything that comes to him by performing. It?s interesting that the two fights prior to the Marquez main event featured two fighters who are just asking for the big fights and are not earning them.
How can you not be a fan of Marquez and what he has been able to do? That?s not just limited to the body of work that he has laid forth in his career but also with what he is still doing with his 37-year-old body. Marquez is one of the few fighters that actually forces me to dodge the punches as they are being thrown on television (I?m truly the best television fighter out there). Seriously though, Marquez utilizes his skill like no other. He is well aware of both what he can and can?t do inside of the ring, although there are far less things that he can?t do.
Marquez also has the one thing that is such a fundamental tool in all sports. That is his ability to adapt and alter his game plan during the course of the fight. I?m sure that Marquez was not thinking that he was going to get knocked down by that huge left hook from Michael Katsidis in the third round of their lightweight championship battle. But he did and instead of panicking and thinking that he was defeated, Marquez dealt with the situation. Katsidis began to apply insane amounts of pressure on Marquez, who wasn?t able to stick to the original game plan of moving behind his jab while landing crisp counter shots from the outside (watch the first two rounds). Flat out, Marquez was forced into a heated fight, again something that he welcomed with his professional, relaxed approach to fighting.
Instantly, after the knockdown, we had ourselves a good old-fashioned close, inside fist fight. Marquez became aware of this and changed his game plan by landing solid body shots, while his counterpart continued to headhunt. Marquez also did not try to unleash the weapon that he knew would win him the fight later, the uppercut. Instead of rushing to throw that shot early on a still-fresh opponent, he understood that he needed to set up that shot by slowing down Katsidis with a well-placed body attack, properly breaking him down (Paul Williams and George Peterson, are you reading this?). On lesser opponents, you can possibly try and take care of business early but when you are fighting number one contenders to your throne, you?d better be aware that you have to stick to a the script that is going to work for you and not get away from it. Even when, at times, you take a few bumps along the way.
Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis are both good, solid pressure fighters but no man is Superman and they both wilted because it takes a lot to apply that type of constant pressure against anyone. Add to that the fact that they are also getting slammed with a precision counter attack to both their bodies and heads and you get the same result, a knockout victory in round nine for Marquez. These results are due to the fact that Marquez not only stuck to the game plan but he also made the defensive adjustment that he needed in order to take away that left hook from Katsidis, which was the weapon that shocked him in round three. Marquez brought his right hand back up to the side of his head after he finished his inside work. Several times, I saw Katsidis trying to land big left hooks that would just bounce off of Marquez?s right glove.
Never getting discouraged, Marquez did what was necessary to break down yet another bigger, younger, and stronger opponent. What we witnessed on Saturday night was another performance from a future Hall of Fame fighter, who, at his core, is a true professional fighter. In my book, yes, Marquez is the best Mexican fighter of his generation and is just as exciting to watch as his fellow Mexicans, something that not too many people thought would be the case when he was still fighting in the shadow of Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales.
We all saw what happened when Barrera and Marquez fought. I do think that had Morales and Marquez fought in their primes, Marquez would have had serious problems with ?El Terrible.? At his best, Morales was a tall, lanky puncher who worked behind a stiff jab and threw a heck of a one-two punch. That combination of physical attributes plus style always has given Marquez problems. Marquez has lost twice to that style of fighter. In fact, they were his last losses, other than the fights against Mayweather and Pacquiao. Both Chris John and Freddie Norwood fought and defeated Marquez because their long-stick jabs kept him at a proper distance while they were able to land the follow-up right hand, proving their points. With that said, I still rank Marquez ahead of Morales and we all know what would happen if they fought now.
Some interesting thoughts about the rest of the night:
-I just love how Berto came off as so arrogant and so sure of his greatness during his interview after the shame of a quick sparring session that was his annual check-collecting date on HBO (notice how I never referred to that bull-you-know-what as a fight). ?I?ve eaten all of my appetizers and it?s time for my main course.? Wow, I guess your sugar daddy of a manager has you spending time with Floyd Mayweather when no one is looking. Andre, just be careful what you wish for, brother. Did he really complain that Larry Merchant was being hard on him during the fighter meetings or was that just me? I mean, come on, Andre; you?re someone who takes punches for a living and you can?t handle a little criticism? Oh, yeah, that?s right; you don?t have to take punches because, in your case, the sky actually did open up and God handed you that championship belt. In all fairness, though, Berto may live up to the expectations one day; until that day, I guess we as fans must remain frustrated with his career.
-Hats off to Jason Litzau, who I thought got a really bad rap from the HBO announcing crew. If they had bothered to do their homework, they would have known that Litzau has only lost twice. One of the losses was to one of HBO?s Golden fighters, Robert Guerrero, in a fight that was for the IBF featherweight belt. Meanwhile, Celestino Caballero, who has fought okay-to-good opposition in his career, was the featured fighter in that match-up. Sorry, but Caballero is another example of how a fighter shouldn?t just get a marquee fight because he asks for it. For all the talk about ?Pelenchin,? I always have felt that Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa would knock his head clear off his shoulders. Did anyone else see Larry Merchant give Lou DiBella two big thumbs down, in regard to Caballero, after the fight? How awesome was that?
As for Litzau, good for him; he was fighting for his professional life. Despite all of the joking and disrespect the HBO crew showed him, he still went over and greeted them after the fight. I?m just wondering if he asked them if it was a good enough performance to get him back on HBO because you know like Jason did that, had he lost, he most likely would not have gotten another shot on the network. To Berto and all other young fighters with a sense of entitlement, yes, some fighters out there actually have to fight for what they get in boxing. I can?t wait till the day when a fighter actually asks Larry Merchant that question after a fight, ?I don?t know; you tell me, Larry; was it good enough to get me another pay date on your network??
-Oh, yeah, I am aware that Showtime had some fights on too. Thank god for DVR because I got to fast-forward through most of the non-action.
-As for Floyd Mayweather, while the HBO crew was unaware of his whereabouts, he was in Miami this holiday weekend with one Don King, sitting courtside for the Sixers and Heat game on Friday night. You really think that Floyd went all the way to Miami just to catch the game with Don? No, my friends, he was there to try and have King work on getting him the big fight with one Manny Pacquiao. For a fight of that magnitude, you?ve got to have King involved, don?t you? Plus, how awesome would it be to have Don King back and involved with a big fight promotion? For all of you that believe Mayweather is ducking Pacquiao, this is after all a business and in business, like in sports and life, timing is everything. Floyd knows full well that the time is soon to strike the iron- because that iron is hot.
So you still think that Pacquiao is some super fighter from another planet that can?t be beat anymore? Read the article below and you?ll understand why I truly believe that Floyd will beat him on that fateful night. I?m not hating on Pacquiao at all. Personally, he is one of my favorite fighters and has been for a long time. He also is undeniably (with a win or loss to Mayweather) the best fighter of the past decade and one of the best ever.
http://www.maxboxing.com/news/sub-lead/i-repeatrepetition
-Lastly, not pushing the panic button on my Philadelphia Eagles just yet, they should have beaten the Chicago Bears on Sunday. They know it and that?s what makes the game so frustrating. Had they pulled a Marquez and stuck to the script and continued to take what the Bears defense was giving them in terms of the mid-range attack, they would have grinded out a victory. Instead, Andy Reid and company got flustered and they strayed away from the plan in the third quarter after giving up the touchdown that put them in a serious hole. At that point, it was too deep of a hole to climb out of. Even still, how awesome was that throw that Michael Vick made between three Bears defenders? Now that is serious needle-threading.
How crazy is it that Vick was the player telling DeSean Jackson to chill out after the loss? Jackson was upset that he was not thrown to as much as he would have liked. In other words, he went all Terrell Owens on his coaches. Hey, DeSean, like my man Mike Vick said, you?re part of a team called the Philadelphia Eagles; they aren?t called the DeSean Jackson Eagles.
