Juan Manuel Marquez W UD12 Mike Alvarado
Juan Manuel Marquez was well on his way to out-classing Mike Alvarado until he got dropped late in the bout, but he recovered in kind and cruised to a one sided points win. The thrilling bout took place moments ago at the legendary Forum in Los Angeles, as seen live on HBO. It started out looking like easy work for Juan Manuel Marquez out of the gate. He looked in total control boxing like the savvy veteran he is. Alvarado looked tentative and shopworn (coming off that vicious beating loss to Ruslan Provodnikov in his last outing) and he was very wary of Marquez?s counter punching in the first half of the bout. Marquez took total control with his jab and countering, and cruised to what was looking like a mismatch into the eighth round. The legendary Mexican punctuated things by dropping Alvarado with a titanic right hand in the closing moments of Round 8. Alvarado beat the count, and his corner may have turned the fight around for him between rounds. They told him to throw caution to the wind and go for it, risking getting knocked out to gun for Marquez hard. Alvarado did just that in the ninth and dropped Marquez with a right hand of his own. The crowd went wild and Marquez got up to trade on even terms to the end of the stanza. Unfortunately for Alvarado, he went back to being too cautious in Rounds 10 through 12 and that sealed the win for the veteran Mexican. Scores were read as 117-109 (x2) and 119-108, all for Marquez, who with the win becomes the mandatory challenger for Manny Pacquiao?s WBO welterweight title. When asked post fight if he will entertain a fifth fight with Pacquiao Marquez said he would think it over.
