The Forum, Inglewood, California – In a WBO final welterweight eliminator, former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over former 140-pound beltholder Mike Alvarado (34-3, 23KOs). The scores were 117-109, 117-109, 119-108.
Top Rank will now move to make a fifth fight between Marquez and WBO champion Manny Pacquiao.
The pace started slow, with Marquez outboxing the less-experienced Alvarado with flush counters. Alvarado would land on occasion, but never with more than one punch at a time. Alvarado tried to take him to war in the fourth on the inside, but Marquez outfought him with hard punches to the head and body.
They were trading hard punches in the fifth, with Marquez winning the war of wills. And the trend continued in the sixth with Marquez outfighting him. Alvarado pressed to make it was slugfest in the seventh and Marquez obliged – but Alvarado was still being outhustled by the veteran, who landed better and harder.
After controlling the eight, Marquez dropped Alvarado at the end of the round with a big right hand on the button. At the start of the ninth, Alvarado returned the favor by dropping Marquez with a bomb of his own. They two started going to war and cut opened under the left eye of Alvarado. Marquez controlled the tenth round with crisp counters and Alvarado was losing steam.
In the eleventh, Alvarado came close to scoring a second knockdown when he caught Marquez with a series of punches.
