Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will get it on May 5 in a bout that’s being touted as boxing’s version of the Super Bowl. But anticipation is also high — particularly among Mexican fans — for Saturday night’s showdown at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas between WBC super featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera and often-avoided challenger Juan Manuel Marquez. “For as long as I can remember, when you talked about the best fighters in the world, the names of Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez were always mentioned, but a fight between them never came off,” De La Hoya says. “I’m excited that we’ve finally been able to put these two great warriors together and present the fans with what I believe will be one of the best fights of the last 25 years.”
Fearless is the apt promotional title for the 12-round bout that features two of the best Mexican fighters in their brawl-filled history. It’s being presented by De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Romanza Boxing and will be telecast live on HBO pay-per-view ($44.95, 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).
Marquez (46-3-1, 35 KOs), the WBO featherweight champion, is moving up four pounds to challenge for Barrera’s 130-pound belt. He’s seeking to match younger brother Rafael Marquez, who moved up from bantamweight (119) to dethrone WBC super bantamweight champion Israel Vazquez two weeks ago. If Barrera loses in the 78th bout ever waged between Mexican champions, it would mark the first time two brothers simultaneously held WBC titles.
Marquez, 33, has longed for a mega fight since getting a disputed draw against Manny Pacquiao in May, 2004 and sees Saturday’s fight with Barrera as a dream come true.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Reuters | LAS VEGAS | Mexican | KOS | Oscar De La Hoya | Floyd Mayweather Jr | Marco Antonio Barrera | Las Vegas Sun | Juan Manuel Marquez “I’ve wanted this fight for four or five years and I had doubts that it would happen,” Marquez says. “I felt that at some point, Marco was going to retire and I’d never be able to get the opportunity to fight him. So I want to thank Marco for giving me this opportunity.”
Barrera, 33, hasn’t had any shortage of big fights, highlighted by his epic trilogy against countryman Erik Morales in which Barrera lost the first bout but finished 2-1 after 36 memorable rounds.
“The Baby-Faced Assassin” (63-4-0, 42 KOs) has won his last six fights since being stopped by Pacquiao in the 11th round in November, 2003, and continues to defy skeptics who surmise that so many tough fights have taken a toll. Showing he still has a lot in his tank, Barrera made his latest statement in September when he dominated Rocky Juarez in a rematch four months after getting past Juarez on a disputed split decision.
Accepting Marquez’s challenge solidifies Barrera’s legacy of taking on all-comers.
“If I was planning to just go out, I would have taken an easier fight so I can retire with my title,” Barrera says. “But I want to fight the best and he’s the best so that’s who I want to fight.”
As same-age contemporaries, Barrera agrees that this is a fight that had to happened but it was never offered until he hooked up with Golden Boy as a vice president.
“Better late than never and now here’s the opportunity,” Barrera says. “I’m not taking anything away from Marquez. He’s a great fighter. And in this fight I’m going back to being the Marco Barrera that I’ve always been known for. I’m planning to go toe-to-toe from the first round to the 12th.”
On the televised undercard, Mexican slugger Daniel Ponce De Leon (30-1, 28 KOs) risks his WBO super bantamweight title against former super flyweight world champion Gerry Penalosa (51-5-2, 34 KOs) of the Philippines; and in junior welterweight action, Demetrius Hopkins (25-0, 10 KOs), nephew of middleweight legend Bernard Hopkins, puts his unbeaten record on the line against former world champion and a season two finalist of ‘The Contender’, Steve Forbes (32-4, 9 KOs).
One more time:
After waging one of the best fights in 2006, cruiserweight champion O’Neil “Supernova” Bell and former unified champion Jean-Marc Mormeck will meet again Saturday in Levallois-Peret, France (MSG, FSN regional, 4 p.m. ET; replayed at 12:30 a.m.).
Bell (26-1-1, 24 KOs), a native Jamaican who resides in Atlanta, finished strong for an 11th-round KO of Mormeck (32-3, 22 KOs), from Rosny-sous-Bois, France. The fight was in the Theater at Madison Square Garden on the undercard of the Carlos Baldomir-Zab Judah fight in January, 2006 and was a finalist for Fight of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America. Bell’s victory made him the first undisputed world cruiserweight champion since Evander Holyfield in 1988.
