In the end, Juan Manuel Marquez had the last laugh.
Oh, how we mocked him—all of us—when he spurned $750,000 for a rematch with Manny Pacquiao. There, finally, was his opportunity for big money and a big fight. Now, at last, he could emerge from the shadows of compatriots Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, and become a leading player on boxing’s main stage.
Instead, he turned it down, walked away from the negotiating table and his long-time promoters, Top Rank, and took $30,000 to defend his featherweight world title in the jungles of Indonesia, where he was relieved of his belt by local favorite Chris John and some dodgy judging.
How we laughed, and rolled our eyes.
This past week in Las Vegas, Marquez and trainer-manager Nacho Beristain attempted to put a more charitable gloss on their decision. They made it, they claimed, because the rematch with Pacquiao came with a clause: to secure it, they had to agree to a contract extension with Top Rank; and that, they said, was something they didn’t want to do.
On the face of it that, too, seemed like a poor decision. After all, under Top Rank, Marquez had won the IBF and WBA featherweight belts, and had secured the main-event matchup with Pacquiao. If he was not a bigger star, one on the level of Barrera or Morales, it had less to do with Bob Arum than with Marquez himself. An outstanding technician, he rarely displayed the passion and excitement in the ring that had made his compatriots such stars. And, when presented with open doors, he had not always walked through them.
After all, he first fought for a title in 1999, and blew his chance against awkward Freddie Norwood. Not until 2003 did he challenge for the crown again, and although this time he succeeded, he had lost precious time in which to make his mark: by then, Barrera and Morales, for example, had already fought each other twice.
Still, Marquez made his choice and insisted he knew what he was doing. And now, here he was, about to square off against Marco Antonio Barrera—a fight that surely would not have been made, given the enmity between Top Rank and Barrera’s Golden Boy Promotions, had Marquez stayed with his previous promoter—with a chance to finally emerge from his countryman’s shadow.
And this time, finally, he took that chance, outpointing Barrera over twelve hard-fought and enthralling rounds on Saturday night, taking Barrera’s WBC super featherweight championship in front of an announced crowd of 8.127 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.
For the first several rounds on Saturday night, the fight smoldered without truly catching alight. It was as if a long trail of gunpowder had been lit, and the flame was slowly, slowly inching its way toward the powder keg that sat at the end. But the wait, and the knowledge that the explosion would come eventually, was tense and frustrating.
Several times, the fight frequently threatened to flare up, generally during the final ten or fifteen seconds of each round as Barrera sought to engage Marquez in a brawl as the bell approached. But most of the first five rounds, although Barrera started reasonably brightly, Marquez appeared to be the more versatile and determined. Whereas Barrera had reverted somewhat to the left-hook-happy slugger of yore, Marquez employed a more varied attack, landing straight right hands behind stiff left jabs, but also deploying his own left hooks that seemed more effective than Barrera’s.
Barrera was doing enough to keep the fight close, but for much of the first five rounds, it appeared as if he was waiting just that fraction too long before throwing his punches, as if perhaps slightly confused by Marquez, or perhaps because, after 17 years and 67, frequently hard-fought battles, he can no longer pull the trigger quite as quickly as once he could.
The fight needed a little something to spark it into life, and it seemed as if perhaps that might have arrived in the sixth, when Marquez tapped Barrera with a left hook after referee Jay Nady had instructed the two men to break, to which Barrera responded by slamming home a right hand the next time Nady offered the same instruction.
But it was in the seventh that a good but edgy fight erupted into a terrific, exciting one.
Marquez, his left eye by now swollen, landed a left and a straight right, and Barrera was hurt. Marquez unleashed a vicious sequence of punches to his opponent’s head and jaw: an uppercut, another right, another uppercut, a left hand, and Barrera reeled into the ropes. Barrera was in trouble, his mouth open, his legs unsteady, and then, with seconds until the bell, Marquez uncorked a big right hand that missed. As Marquez’ momentum carried him forward, Barrera clipped him with a short right and Marquez went down. Barrera looked at him for a second, cocked his right hand, and unleashed it, grazing his floored adversary.
Nady didn’t see the knockdown, which he ruled a slip. But he did see Barrera’s follow-up, and he docked a point as the bell rang and the corners ached to clamber into the ring. What might have been a 10-9 round for Barrera was instead 10-8 for Marquez.
As if energized by the events at the end of the seventh, rather than set back by the beating he had taken earlier in the round, Barrera tore out of his corner in the eighth and attacked Marquez during probably his finest three minutes of the fight. The battle spilled over into the ninth: a right hand and left hook from Marquez, a sequence of punches in close from Barrera, and then a solid right to the jaw as he walked Marquez to the ropes.
It was real quality stuff now, and the crowd was enthralled and loud. Initially pro-Barrera, it was now pro-Mexico, cheering on both men for their sterling efforts.
Marquez landed a huge overhand right in the tenth, but this time Barrera walked through it. But Marquez seized control again in this round, landing first one left-right combination and then another, followed by a flurry on the inside. He swarmed Barrera on the ropes, and although Barrera fought him off with two well-placed left hooks, Marquez punctuated the stanza with two huge left hooks of his own, and Barrera’s momentum had been stalled.
The championship rounds were all Marquez, but Barrera, seemingly drained and dazed, kept fighting, all the way to the final bell, refusing to give any quarter, even as the final punch of the night, a big left hook from Marquez, left him standing at the bell, looking exhausted and spent as Marquez wheeled away to celebrate his apparent victory.
All three judges saw it much the same way: two scores of 116-111 (the same as TigerBoxing), and one of 118-109, for the winner and new champion, Juan Manuel Marquez.
“This is boxing,” said Barrera afterward. “We are Mexicans. This is the sport. I did the necessary things to win. He went down and the ref didn’t touch me. I never connected that punch. I never threw that punch because I thought he was down. He hit me four times below the belt and I never said nothing. They were bad judges. I won that fight and I don’t know what happened.”
“Barrera is a great champion,” said Marquez. “He connected with a great shot on the chin. Unfortunately, he hit me with the other shot when I was down. He deserves the rematch.”
According to HBO, the date set aside for that rematch is September 15. It remains to be seen whether Barrera will accept the offer, saying he wanted to go on vacation with his family and think things through.
On The Undercard
The televised undercard was sadly affected by what seemed some highly dubious judging.
In the co-main event, WBO super bantamweight titlist Daniel Ponce de Leon retained his belt with a points verdict over veteran Gerry Penalosa, and while that result seemed acceptable, the margin of official victory was eye-opening. Two judges gave him 11 of the 12 rounds, and the third gave him all 12. TigerBoxing saw a much closer bout, seven rounds to five, 115-113 for Ponce de Leon, while some others in press row scored the fight for Penalosa.
Certainly, the almost absurdly crude Ponce de Leon had his work cut out for him against Penalosa, who for much of the first two-thirds or more of the bout sought to time the young champion’s lunges, landing a steady sequence of southpaw right hooks that caught the attention of both his opponent and the audience. By the end of the bout, the youngster renowned for his furious punching power was on his bike, circling, jabbing, sticking and moving, landing one punch at a time and then moving away. It hardly fit the stereotype, but it was enough for him to get the victory, if not by the extent delivered on the official cards.
At least the judges had the right winner in that bout. Few, except the three people whose opinions mattered, thought Demetrius Hopkins beat Steve Forbes in the junior welterweight bout that opened the pay-per-view broadcast. The older, smaller Forbes took the fight to Hopkins from the opening bell, forcing the pace, and making it hard for the natural counter puncher to find his range or comfort zone. The ringside consensus was that Forbes had won by around eight rounds to four, give or take, but the official judges saw nothing like that at all, rendering verdicts of 118-110 (twice) and 117-111, allowing Hopkins to maintain his unbeaten record.
“I think I pulled out the fight in the last rounds. I deserved the victory,” insisted Hopkins.
“I’m in shock. I won the fight. I want an immediate rematch,” protested Forbes.
This is likely to be one of those contests where the loser is the winner, as Forbes’ stock will likely rise in defeat, and Hopkins’ will sink somewhat.
