ANGEL RODRIGUEZ: The fight that might eclipse the drama and bloodlust of Juan Manuel Marquez’s WBO featherweight title bout versus Jimrex Jaca tonight will be the one between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank. The boxing promoter’s version of Spy vs. Spy will feature the arch rivals icing the intriguing matchups that can be made between Top Rank’s Manny Pacquiao and Goldie’s Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez. In true Spy vs. Spy fashion, expect Richard Schaefer to side step a safe thrown out of a skyscraper in the next few weeks while Bob Arum shuffles to his right to avoid Vegas ring posts from collapsing on him as he climbs the steps at his next promotion.
While fighting a 5-7 featherweight is never a simple thing, especially when they are southpaws to boot, Marquez should control Jaca with his ring generalship, body punching, and jab to win the HBO main event.
Then again, the Thai kid that Juan just knocked out took Marquez to hell and back before getting counted out. This rough tussle came off Marquez having the unheralded Chris John jacking him for his title in the jungle like Marquez was a clueless billionaire on a safari who asked the camouflaged guerillas who kidnapped him for directions to the Indonesian Hilton.
If JMM is slipping instead of struggling to get motivated for the little fights, then he might not get a chance to bathe in late career glory and big purses a la his black brother from another mother Bernard Hopkins.
JASON PROBST: Man don’t start talking like that. You start sounding like H. Rap Brown on a corner or something, all prophesized and stuff. Listen, Juan Manuel is just going to take the long road to stardom, that’s all. Give him an aggressive foe who will bring the fight and he’s instantly marketable, the modern day embodiment of a poor man’s Salvador Sanchez. But unlike Sanchez, who could hunt down and trap counterpunchers, Marquez’ Achilles heel is that he’s simply terrible to watch against runners and cuties.
I still remember falling asleep sitting ringside at his bout with Freddie “Little and Even More Boring” Norwood. I suppose Marquez got slightly robbed or something but I couldn’t make the call myself, getting some quality REM sleep by the sixth round. I took Rich Marotta’s word for it and he had the same thing happen against Derrick Gainer. Marquez needs aggressive foes who will play into his temperament and gifts.
If he scores another rousing knockout in a live scrap tonight, well, that’s perfect. Nothing wrong with taking some shots and coming back to win like he did in his last fight. Pacquiao will not be able to find Barrera, methinks, unless Barrera’s people are willing to sell him to the devil for one last king-hell payday. Marquez is the only guy that’s gonna beat Pac Man at 130 right now.
RODRIGUEZ : H. Rap Brown. The Amazing Karnac. Walter Mercado. Any of them can see that the reason that Arum was suppressing a jolly Bill Cosby Jell-O smile at the post fight press conference last weekend was for single particular reason. By flexing his promotional pimp hand to send Pac-Man?s handlers scurrying back onto the Top Rank street corner in stiletto pumps, Arum effectively got revenge on GBP in the short term and long term.
In the short term, Bottom Line Bob one-upped his uppity arch-rival. In the long term, Arum can have Manny fight for good money in exotic locales against solid competition and let the 30 plus year old Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez waste on the super fight grapevine without ?Pac-Man? to cash in on. Somewhere on Howard Hughes Boulevard in Vegas Arum is doing an old man Brooklyn Jewish version of the James Brown slide-and-glide over the prematurely printed fight posters of a Pacquiao vs. Barrera rematch while singing a karaoke of the Godfather of Soul?s ?The Big Payback?.
Juan Manuel isn?t taking the long road to stardom Jason. His management team makes Bernard Hopkins? pre-DiBella brain trust look Don King in his prime. As least Bernard talked trash leading up to the fight to dull the residue of a grinding textbook performance. Seriously, Nacho Beristain reminds me of the first year paralegal who insists on being the legal counsel for his nephew?s pending murder charges then screams ?Injustice? when his nephews are found guilty and carted away to Death Row.
Marquez doesn?t have many choices at all if he is looking for a straightforward puncher who won?t mind getting short money to get counter punched all night long. Even if Juan jumped up to 130 lbs, who is he going to fight?
Marquez?s best chance for a decent purse at this point is to sponsor Scott Harrison?s recovery from substance abuse and depression. A fight with the haunted Harrison will give Juan some pub in the U.K. where he may be able to ply his craft for a more appreciative and well paying audience.
I knew Salvador Sanchez my friend. And Marquez is no Sanchez.
PROBST: Man, that was harsh, but correct. Nacho is admittedly the worst manager since Goliath’s guy let him go in against David without checking the little guy for slings and contraband. Scotty Harrison is a good idea, and a viable foe, that would make Marquez look good. But maybe we are overlooking Jaca a touch here.
After all, he is 27-2-1 with 12 KOs, and has wins over completely nondescript opposition (even his non-wins are against nobodies). Doesn’t that make him dangerous in some sense? And, he’s a southpaw. Marquez looked terrible against cutie lefties in Gainer and Norwood. And what’s with the trouble getting a damned visa to get into this country? Since 9/11 it seems like half the foreign fighters can’t get in here. You’d think their managers would either get on it earlier, or the State Department or whomever would readjust their priorities and leave vetted working folk like Jaca alone and concentrate on real problems.
Given that this is his second try, I would be shocked if Jaca puts up much of a fight. But I wouldn’t be shocked if he makes it such a bad fight that Marquez is further away from a big payday than before, or at least with reduced leverage. Such is the story of JMM.
RODRIGUEZ : A tall southpaw always poses a stylistic problem, but not so much when their skills have been honed against bums. That being said, I can see Juan going five hard rounds before he breaks Jaca’s elongated torso down for the late round KO. Some of these foreign fighters? managers don’t know how to navigate the VISA bureaucracy when it comes to the new Homeland Security rules. Maybe the managers look like the fat producer with the gypsy features from the movie, “Borat”, which prompts the customs officials to say, “Hell the *$&@ no!”
JMM’s career will end up as a Bob Dylan blues song if Juan sucks tonight.
