When three-division champion Juan Manuel Marquez decides to walk away from the sport as an active professional, he will have left a lasting memory as one of this generation’s finest Mexican pugs and one of its most skilled and tenacious competitors. The Mexico City fighter still has great aspirations for the remainder of his career but at age 37 you can definitely see the light at the end of Marquez’s tunnel. While there is very little that you can knock about Marquez inside of the ring, it has been his actions outside of the squared circle in recent years that have been peculiar. Whether noticing he had to be a bit more vocal to be noticed as his twilight years approached or out of pure disdain, we have seen our share of verbal venom from Marquez towards the politics of the sport as well as his fellow brethren.
The latest person on Marquez’s hit list is undefeated junior middleweight Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, who is in line for his first crack at a world title when he goes for the vacant WBC junior middleweight scrap against tough-but-limited Brit Matthew Hatton. Alvarez is a promising talent with an efficient and debilitating attack, yet the 20-year old still has much room to grow. The title become up for grabs after it’s champion Manny Pacquiao, who had dominated Antonio Margarito for the belt last November, declared he was going to campaign at 147 pounds or less for his future endeavors.
It took Marquez six and a half years and 31 fights before he was able to vie for his first world title, a disputed decision loss to then-WBA featherweight champion Freddie Norwood at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and he had to come up the hard way in facing a wide range of capable opposition without much exposure. Garnering somewhat of a cult following along the West Coast in his early years, it is obviously hard for Marquez to see a youngster like Alvarez get such a leisurely shot while still fresh into his career.
“That really sucks,” Marquez said in a BoxingScene.com piece by Hesiquio Balderas. “I am speaking as a fighter and for the fighters that are ranked. They work very hard to get in the rankings and all of a sudden this kid is the number one contender because he has the silver belt? Come on, what about Perro Angulo? What about the English guy who is ranked number 4? What about Vanes? And now you give him Hatton, who isn’t even ranked in the super welterweight division. It took me a lot of years to get a title shot that is why I am speaking as a fighter.”
Alvarez was granted this opportunity after Oscar De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy Promotions who oversee ‘Canelo’, approached WBC president Jose Suliaman with a request on behalf of his fighter. Despite there being a wealth of talent in the WBC’s top fifteen junior middleweight rankings, Suliaman gave the nod to Hatton, ranked #5 on the WBC’s welterweight ladder.
This line of thinking has also ticked off Marquez’s trainer Nacho Beristain.
“This is total BS,” Beristain unloaded. “Suliaman owns the WBC, everyone knows that, and I am happy to get his opportunity to say this to his face. Why don’t you help Angulo get a visa, when you have done it in the past for many fighters. You have the power to do it, this is ridiculous. This kid Canelo has talent but he is too green to get a title shot. He hasn’t beaten any contenders yet and Hatton? What has he done? Nothing at all. He is not even a decent fighter.”
Giving his take on matters, Suliaman insisted that other ideal candidates were simply not available for such a shot. The 79-year old also took a few parting shots at Marquez, claiming that he was jealous of Alvarez’s newfound opportunity and growing fame.
Such theories didn’t sit too well with the tried and true champion.
“I don’t envy anyone because I am on my way out,” Marquez lashed out. “I am a current champion who takes on anyone, and I’m a champion in three weight classes. What can I be jealous of?”
Alvarez faces Hatton at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California on an edition of HBO’s Boxing After Dark on March 5th.
Marquez passed up on an opportunity to face off with Erik Morales on April 9th at the MGM Grand, instead opting to sit on the sidelines in hopes of becoming a free agent from Golden Boy. Marquez very well could end up being in line to face Pacquiao for a third time around November if Floyd Mayweather Jr. can’t be enticed enough to take the call.
