Marquez knocks out Vazquez, could face Darchinyan next

Photo credit – Carlos Baeza – By Jason Kim: Former IBF bantamweight champion Rafael Marquez (39-5, 25 KO’s) was too much for Israel Vazquez (44-5, 32 KO’s) tonight, taking him out in the 3rd round of a scheduled 12 round non-title bout at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California. With Vazquez cut over both eyes in the 3rd, Marquez knocked him down with a powerful looping right hand that put Vazquez on one knee. After he got up, Marquez was all over him, backing him up to the ropes and unloading on until the referee stepped in and stopped the bout at 1:33 of the round. Vazquez was cut badly over his left eye in the 2nd round.

The cut was a nasty one that opened up his entire left eyebrow like a fish. Vazquez walked into a lot of shots from Marquez in the three rounds of the fight, especially after he was cut. Vazquez kept trying to push the attack like he had done in the three previous fights. However, like in the first fight, the pressure wasn’t working for Vazquez and was only leading to problems for him. Marquez met him much of the time with hard jabs and hooks to the head and body.

Marquez took the 1st and 2nd rounds with his more accurate shots, better work rate and hand speed. Vazquez could still throw with power, but he wasn’t throwing the same speed that he had in the other three fights. By the end of the 1st round, Vazquez’s face was starting to turn red from the big shots that Marquez was hitting him with. In the other fights between the two boxers, Vazquez was able to give Marquez problems with his big power. But tonight, Vazquez looked like he’d aged a million years. He wasn’t the same fighter he was two years ago when they last fought.

In the 2nd round, Vazquez kept trying to come in on Marquez to land his shots, but he was met with big shots as he came near Marquez. The cut over the left eye of Vazquez began to look even worse, because Marquez kept hitting him on the cut, which made it bleed even more.
In the 3rd round, Vazquez was cut for the second time in the fight, this time over his right eye. Now Vazquez had to deal with blood coming into both eyes. It made it all the more harder to get at Marquez with only partial vision. Marquez began to pour it on now, knocking Vazquez down with a right hand. After the action resumed, Vazquez was in serious trouble and was immediately driven to the ropes where he took heavy shots until the fight was stopped at 1:33 of the round.

After the bout, Marquez’s promoter mentioned wanting to match him against bantamweight Vic Darchinyan next. This would be a very tough fight for Darchinyan, because he only recently moved up to bantamweight and he hasn’t look nearly as impressive at that weight compared to how he looks at flyweight and super flyweight. If Darchinyan is to fight Marquez, it would mean that Darchinyan would have to move up two weight classes to take on Marquez. That would probably be asking a lot of Darchinyan, who didn’t look all that great in losing to Joseph Agbeko by a 12 round decision loss in July.

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