Juan Manuel Marquez faces what could be the defining moment of a legendary boxing career tomorrow, when he fights Manny Pacquiao in quest of a world title in his fourth different weight class.
The 38-year-old Mexican has enjoyed a legendary career, but settled for a controversial 2004 draw with Pacquiao and lost a 2008 rematch by one point on one judge’s scorecard, leaving their third slugfest to settle the score.
“Without a doubt, it’s personal for me,” Marquez said. “I didn’t get the decisions in the first two. I thought I won them both. The third fight will show who is the best.”
PHOTO: Reuters
Marquez, 53-5 with one draw and 39 knockouts, has won world titles at featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight and hopes to take Pacquiao’s WBO title tomorrow.
“He needs this fight badly,” Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach said of Marquez. “You will see a high level of boxing in that ring on Saturday.”
His willingness to exchange flurries of punches made his bouts with the Filipino icon exciting for fight fans, but he is confident he can take a decision if he is unable to land a knockout blow.
PHOTO: Reuters
“I’m just going in with the mentality I have to win the rounds, and if the opportunity comes to knock him out, I’m not going to hesitate,” Marquez said.
Growing up the poor son of a fighter in a tough Mexico City neighborhood, Marquez was disqualified in his 1993 pro debut, but won his next 29 fights until losing to Fred Norwood in 1999 in his first world title bout.
Marquez’s only other losses came to unbeaten Indonesian Chris John in 2006, to Pacquiao in 2008 and, in his only prior welterweight fight, to unbeaten US star Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2009.
For years, Marquez has sought a third fight with Pacquiao, giving it so much emphasis that he dismissed questions about a possible next fight or retirement, which is not on his mind, by saying his only focus has been beating Pacquiao.
“I’m not thinking of anything but Saturday’s fight,” Marquez said.
Marquez is six years older than Pacquiao, but neither fighter thinks that has cost him any skill and might have made him a smarter, more dangerous fighter.
“I don’t believe age has anything to do with it,” Marquez said. “I’ve prepared very well. With the good training camp I had I’ll be ready. I know Pacquiao comes to fight. It’s always a spectacular fight. That’s why I think it’s going to be a great war between us. There are two warriors in the ring. One is pressing the other. Styles make fights.”
Both fighters have avoided trash talking, although Marquez’s claims of victory in the two prior fights have come close to taunting.
“You can be a good boxer without saying bad things,” Pacquiao said. “Inside my heart, he is my friend, but in the ring we have business to do.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier