Marquez Loses Out
The current situation of Juan Manuel Marquez is sad. Two years ago he was a respected Featherweight Champion who had just fought to a 12 round draw with Manny Pacquiao. His marketability was growing by the second, finally catching up to his enormous talent after a number of years in anonymity. However, instead of signing with big names to produce blockbuster events, Marquez and his manager Nacho Beristain priced themselves out of these fights. With legendary fighters like Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, and Manny Pacquiao all at or around his weight class, millions of dollars were there to be made. Counterpunching is the strong point of Juan Manuel, not negotiating it appears. With no high profile dance partners, Marquez wallowed on undercards fighting uninspiring title defenses.
Fast forward to the end of 2005. The team of Manny Pacquiao offered Marquez $750,000 for a rematch which was quickly denied and called an insult. Pacquiao shrugged his shoulders and moved on to his fights with Erik Morales. Only months later, Juan Manuel accepted the purse bid for $30,000 to fight Chris John in Indonesia. John was a wildcard since very few had ever seen him in person before. However, all of the reports that I had read were extremely positive. Chris John was almost as dangerous of an opponent as Pacquiao. Yet, Marquez denied the fight with Pacquiao that was to be held without bias in America for countless more money. That would make too much sense and boxing is not a logical sport. No, Marquez opted to fight for pocket change against a dangerous unknown in his opponent’s hometown.
Marquez went over and lost a unanimous decision to Chris John on Saturday. Reports coming out of press row from Indonesia are very scarce so far so it is hard to determine if the scores truly represented the action, since you can never be sure with these wacky boxing judges. Even if there was a biased hometown decision, Juan Manuel’s team should have realized that this could have happened before signing to fight such a boneheaded contract. Why go over to Indonesia to fight in a hostile environment when you do not have to? Marquez was considered one of the top 10 pound for pound fighters on the planet and his reputation is now in jeopardy. He could be the most mismanaged fighter in history taking these unnecessary big risks and not even being financially compensated. That near million dollar payday against Pacquaio is looking very good right now, but is out of reach.
Pound for Pound Follies
A while back I wrote an article on why although I like the Ring Magazine rankings much more than the sanctioning bodies, they are not perfect. This month the organization has displayed their questionable judgment again. The publication released their new pound for pound rankings. One name caught my eye breaking the list at #10: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. I know the longtime Flyweight beltholder from Thailand well. Over the entire course of his career Wonjongkam has fought some respectable opponents like Hussein Hussein and Malcolm Tunacao, but those highlights on his record are few and far between. His recent opponents have been weak, including trying to pass of Gilberto Keb Baas as a legitimate title defense. Plus, Pongsaklek has never been faced a superstar opponent, or even anyone in the pound for pound top 50. What has he done since last month to merit this position on the list? Very little is the answer.
I question whether Wonjongkam is even the top Flyweight in the world at the moment. Other belt holders Vic Darchinyan and Lorenzo Parra has accomplished as much or more in the past couple of years. Parra’s win over Eric Morel and Darchinyan’s win over Irene Pacheco are more significant than any single win in Wonjongkam’s entire career. Jorge Arce is another name who has been on a roll lately and I would not argue if someone ranked Arce above the Thai fighter known as 3-K Battery. Also make note that Wonjongkam has never and will never dare to fight any of these top competitors. Others have grabbed a title and fought safe opposition in order to string together a healthy number of defenses. These paper champions who hold their belt captive in their home countries, Sven Ottke for example, have never been able to breach pound for pound lists for good reason. Now is not the time to start.
A much better choice for that number 10 would be Jermain Taylor. Taylor twice beat all time great Bernard Hopkins who used to the top P4P fighter in the world. Some of Taylor’s victories before he was Champion, William Joppy and Raul Marquez for instance, are on par with Wonjongkam’s best wins. Taylor is challenging and beating the best fighters in the world. Jermain takes chances has far surpassed Wonjongkam in significant wins over the last two years. Wonjongkam is a good fighter but not on the level of Jermain Taylor. Pongsaklek is and should be a footnote until he steps up and fights somebody. Another more worthy selection would be the newly crowned 168 pound Champion Joe Calzaghe.
