By Chris William: Juan Manuel Marquez (53-6-1, 39 KO’s) could be facing IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) in April in fight for the 38-year-old Marquez’s fourth division world title at the Cowvboy’s Stadium in Arlington, Texas, according to RingTV.

Marquez says he’ll agree to this fight if he can get a guarantee for a fourth fight against Manny Pacquiao, who he lost to recently by a controversial 12 round decision last November in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Peterson-Marquez fight would be part of Bob Arum’s brainchild idea of a four-fighter tournament. The other fight will be Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley. The winner of the two fights will meet up in November in the finals. Floyd Mayweather Jr. obviously won’t be a part of any of this.

Marquez says he’ll be signing the contract for the Peterson fight in a week or two. His promoter Fernando Beltran is working on the deal.
Marquez told RingTV “I told Fernando that I will only sign the contract [for Peterson fight] if you give me the fight with Manny. I won’t sign the Peterson contract if you won’t give me the fourth fight with Manny Pacquiao.”

There it is. It’s going to be a tit for tat thing where Bob Arum is going to have to give Marquez a fourth fight with Pacquiao if he wants Marquez to fight Peterson to make the four fighter tourney a reality.

Arum has got the right idea by putting Marquez in the Cowboys’ Stadium because Marquez will likely draw a huge crowd and if Arum puts a decent undercard with this fight, it could bring in decent numbers. I wonder if the numbers will be anything close to 41,000 that Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito brought in when they fought at the Cowboys Stadium in 2010.

Marquez-Peterson isn’t a bad fight. Peterson likes to punch on the inside but he’s not as good on the inside as Marquez and this could be the one of the rare occasions where Peterson is out of his league.