After his scintillating knockout victory over a game and tough Filipino, Jimrex Jaca on Saturday night at the Dodge Arena in Hidalgo, Texas, WBO interim featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (46-3-1, 35 KOs) is in line for a big fight. “Barrera is a great fighter, Pacquiao is a great fighter, Matador Chavez is a great fighter and any of those three I wouldn’t hesitate to take on,” stated Marquez to Fightnews.com. “All three of them are great, but I have a thorn on my side and he has thorn on his side and I am talking about Manny Pacquiao, so the most logical thing to do is to fight against him.” Read on to discover what the three-time featherweight champion had to say about the fight against Jaca and his future plans…
How are you doing champ? I’m doing great.
Let’s talk about your fight. Did Jimrex Jaca’s southpaw stance and unorthodox style pose a difficult fight for you because of the head butts? Before the head butts, actually once the head butts began I shouldn’t have come in with too much confidence. So, what we did to adjust to that was to fight in a shorter distance and to avoid his head because he would come in hard with his head.
Do you think the referee should have taken some points or penalized him somehow? Your corner did complain to him about the repeated head butts. Yes of course. The referee never warned him about it. We know those were intentional and he was coming in hard with the intent of hitting us with his head. When the referee didn’t say nor do anything to him it enraged me so much because I didn’t want the fight to be stopped and go to the scorecards. I wanted to demonstrate to the people and to the fighter that one way or another we would knock him out and that is the way it turned out to be eventually.
It was a one punch knockout. What ran across your mind in that particular moment did you believe he would get up from the knock down? You know what, yes I did. I thought he would get up. Because I was looking at the replay of the knockdown up on the big screen and it was four punches that we delivered exactly, but when I saw him, I saw his eyes and he was lost. When the count reached seven and I noticed that he didn’t move and his expression was still showing confusion, that’s when I thought, ‘well, he is not going to get up.’
It seems the opponents you have faced, as of late are all similar in unorthodox, southpaws and difficult styles to look good against. You have now molded and gotten accustomed to fighting these types of fighters? I have faced southpaws, I have faced right handed opponents many times before but now in these past year I have faced southpaws mostly and to fight south paws from now on there shouldn’t be any excuses because I know have developed a style for left handed fighters. I have studied them very well and I am ready for them.
Speaking of left left-handers, there is one very good one in Manny Pacquiao and a potential superfight between you and him. How are the talks carrying over about it? Oh yes, we will talk to Oscar De La Hoya and we will study the possibilities of a fight between Pacquiao and me. Right now Pacquiao has problems, I don’t know, something to do with him having signed several contracts with two or three different promoters. He has to fix that situation first, but there is also a potential great fight for me against Marco Antonio Barrera and then maybe after Pacquiao fixes his problems we can fight against him.
Speaking of fighters with problems and fixing them, it appears that Scott Harrison will be allowed to fight in December against Nicky Cook in London, England and not lose his status as featherweight champion with the WBO. What about that match up between you and him for the title, being that you are the interim champion? Look, that is an important fight, but if a bigger fight comes up, such as one with either Barrera or Pacquiao the logical thing to do would be to fight them here and not travel to Europe and fight Harrison over there. The fights that we want are the big ones and the more factual ones, you know?
I agree. What if those fights don’t happen? How about facing Orlando Salido who just beat Robert Guererro for the IBF title and Salido just recently spoke to Mack Danife of Fightnews about how he tested negative for steroids or any performance enhancing drugs through LabCorp? Yes no doubt we would face him. I have faced great opponents before but the big fights that are out there and that I want are Pacquiao, Barrera and “El Matador” Chavez. In case that those fights can’t be made and we see that it is being very difficult to make then we would look at unifying the titles, which would be the best option, but first we are here for the big fights.
About how much time will you be out due to that big vertical cut you received on your forehead? Look, my doctor who is a plastic surgeon told me that in 15 to 20 days it should heal completely. I will rest up for a whole month and take care of it with the medication he gave me. I think the cut won’t give us any trouble.
Had you ever received that type of cut before? In the thirteen years of my boxing career, I had never received a cut like this one. I have been cut before from head butts on the eyes but never on my forehead.
Going back to that nasty cut. When you were repeatedly taken to the neutral corner so the fight doctor could check you, did you think they were going to stop the fight? Because every time you came out of that break you would come out aggressive. Look, what happens is that when we came out of the corner for the very first round, our intention was to win and look for the knockout. I think that the rage of being hit by head butts continuously and being taken to the doctor and you come back to fight and once again they head butt you in the same place. That’s what really got me mad and I that’s when I took the decision to make sure the doctor wouldn’t stop the fight even though I was up on the scorecards.
Jaime Quintana (President Romanza Productions): Jose, let me add that it is very uncomfortable to see the referee not even once have the intention of letting the other fighter know to watch the head butts. The only thing he related to us when we complained to him was that he couldn’t do anything about it and would relate to us that they were accidental head butts and he could absolutely do nothing about it. I believe that wasn’t true and it shouldn’t happen that way because it says in the rules that even when it’s an accidental head but there should be some kind of attention made to both fighters to be careful with their heads, and if it persists to happen, points should start being deducted. There can even be a more drastic attention called for such repeated head butts that even a disqualification can take place.
Mr. Quintana, I gather you were displeased with the referee’s non-action in the head butt situation? How can it be possible that you are seeing a cut that began being a half inch cut in length and then four head butts later the injury extends to two inches. To see the referee not even take the initiative to say something to Jaca. Then when I complained to him, he would tell me, “what do you want me to do, change his style of fighting?” I don’t think that’s the answer to what was happening.
Can you tell us about your fighter Juan Manuel and his boxing career as it appears that it is now beginning to blossom, because there are the mega fights he is talking about, including the one against Pacquiao because it seems he is the one with the better chance to defeat him? That’s correct. Right now Juan Manuel is peaking in his conditioning, abilities in the ring and his popularity. We have seen that Manny Pacquiao needs Juan Manuel to boost and continue with his career. Manny already swept with Barrera, he swept with Erik Morales, now he needs Marquez. He needs Marquez to be able to go forward and give a great spectacle and earn the big purses. I just read an article on Fightnews.com where Freddy Roach feels that, now let me tell you, I am not an attorney but Freddy feels that Manny Pacquiao should stay with Oscar De La Hoya because since Oscar signed Manny first, Oscar has more rights to him. Also, Freddy lays it out very clear that Pacquiao needs Juan Manuel Marquez to be able to have the multimillion-dollar fights. Which is exactly what Juan Manuel is looking for and what Manny Pacquiao is looking for.
Dinamita, in your training camp, did you ever realize that Jimrex Jaca was going to be so unorthodox and difficult to fight? We never thought he was going to fight like he did. We didn’t think he was going to be in the fight and come straightforward and look to exchange with us. We actually thought he was going to come out and move, and run around the ring. I never like to look at my opponents fight tapes. I like to prepare myself for anything that might happen and that helps me greatly because we actually only saw but one video of Jaca and in that video we saw a fighter that would back up and move around. So, I have concluded that only seeing one fight of your opponent and to actually work and prepare yourself for many other things that they might bring to the table will help you immensely.
Any of the three fights you have mentioned between Pacquiao, Barrera and Jesus Chavez would be a big fight with a big purse. Tell me which one of those three would you prefer to fight? Look, I believe any of those three would be great fights that I wish to have, you know. Barrera is a great fighter, Pacquiao is a great fighter, Matador Chavez is a great fighter and any of those three I wouldn’t hesitate to take on. All three of them are great, but I have a thorn on my side and he has thorn on his side and I am talking about Manny Pacquiao, so the most logical thing to do is to fight against him.
Talk to us about that great match up. Your fight against Pacquiao. You got back up three times in that first round and showed your great heart and resiliency. Many didn’t think you would survive those three knockdowns but yet you did. Talk to us about what ran through your veins to recuperate and come back in such a dramatic fashion. I believe that we went into that fight very well prepared. We came in perfect. Being the champion I never believed I would lose in that manner and in the first round and much less with three knockdowns. I believe the three months of preparation and the valor that we have to defend with honor what cost us so much to attain. How sorry I am that they took it (IBF world title) away from us outside of the ring. It cost us so much and it was there where I found out how to defend it at all cost and it was the motivation that I needed.
I know that boxing runs deep through your family, your father was a professional boxer with over 40 plus fights and your brother Rafael is a great fighter himself. Any one else in the family that we should know about, that is tie-in up his boxing gloves? Well, who knows because right now my son just loves to play soccer. He is a soccer player. I have another little one that also loves soccer and who knows what other sport they might want to participate in later on but what ever they decide to do I will support them. If they like to box, surely I will be there for them and if not, so be it, you know.
You and your brother are considered to be the greatest brother duo in boxing. Both of you are world champions and great ones at that. Tell me about the transition of starting in your father’s footsteps and deciding to become prizefighters. First our father taught us how to box. We both liked it and we kept ourselves training and being responsible as far as the training and preparation, which I believe, is very important. My father was very instrumental in me in my brother becoming prizefighters.
What’s the secret to you and your brother’s success in boxing? What kind of advice would you give to a young amateur fighter that ask you ‘I want to be as good as you’? I believe that we always wanted to prepare ourselves and keep winning and winning. You always have to prepare and leave behind many things and sacrifice to become a world champion and that was one thing we always knew. You can have the mentality to become a world champion, anyone can, but if you don’t have the vocation to train, the responsibility to get up at 4 or 5 in the morning to go running and then come back in the afternoon hours for training. If you do have the mentality to be a champion but you don’t train you won’t make it.
If your mentality is there, you train hard and are responsible, your probabilities of becoming a world champion are great. My advice to that young amateur fighter is like I just told you. If they dream to be a world champion, they have to follow their dream with the preparation. They have to follow that dream with the dedication, the responsibility with their sights on being great since they are beginning and to keep working hard in their training and learning progress and if they keep at it and try their best they will accomplish their goal. In any case if this young amateur fighter loses a fight along his way, don’t get discouraged because it will help you gain experience. To learn about a defeat is of great valuable experience. Like the old saying reads, ‘you might lose the battle but not the war’ and you just get back up and dust yourself off.
When you were down there in South Texas, (Rio Grande Valley) during the Thanksgiving Holiday you spent it watching the Dallas Cowboys on the tube, and by the way they are doing very well. I was very happy. I would have loved to actually watch them at Texas Stadium in Irving but we had work to do and the commitment to the fight. I really enjoyed watching them beat the Indianapolis Colts and give them their first loss and the previous week I also saw them defeat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and those were two victories that I enjoyed watching the Cowboys perform and where else did I see them but in Texas?
I just found out you are a big fan of the Dallas Cowboys. What do you think about an NFL team materializing out of your hometown of Mexico City in Mexico? Well, let me tell you, a couple of years ago the Cowboys came down to play against, I believe it was Phoenix, and I was right there on the 50 yard line. If we ever get an NFL football team over here, I would probably go watch them but if the Cowboys were playing, I would be there 100 percent for sure.
How did you like fighting and training for over a week down in the tip of Texas known as the Rio Grande Valley? The people down there are very special. They make you feel very comfortable and I would love to go back once again in a heartbeat. It was a great experience for me and I will always remember the Rio Grande Valley. I would like to thank all the boxing fans that attended the fight there at the Dodge Arena, they all seemed to enjoy the fight as I saw them all. A big hug to all of them and I wish I could extend my hand to shake everyone’s but you know that would be some accomplishment, lol, and let me thank everyone reading on Fightnews and you for all your attention.
