Marquez not worried about Alvarado’s size; motivated for Pacquiao rematch

By Boxing News - 05/17/2014 - Comments

marquez000000By Dan Ambrose: Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) will be entering the ring the much smaller fighter tonight in his 143 lb catch weight fight against Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) at the Forum, in Inglewood, California, USA. Marquez, 40, says he’s not worried about being the smaller guy in this fight, because he feels that his skills and his punches will be enough to carry him to victory. That remains to be seen though, because Marquez lost his last fight to Tim Bradley, and he looked like he’d lost a lot from his game since his victory over Manny Pacquiao in 2012.

Marquez needs a victory tonight to get an important 5th fight against Pacquiao for later this year. Marquez explains that the reason why he changed his mind about wanting to fight Pacquiao now is because he’s now the WBO welterweight champion, and that he feels that Pacquiao is the best of the 147 lb champions in the division. This must mean that Marquez has changed his opinion about Floyd Mayweather Jr. being the best fighter in the welterweight division, because Marquez previous felt that Mayweather was the best at 147. It could be that Marquez changed his mind after seeing Mayweather struggle to beat Marcos Maidana this month.

“No, that [Alvarado’s size advantage] doesn’t worry me. Fights are based on punches, not about size, and that who throws the best punches and fights the best will win,” Marquez said. “I feel that if you look at all the opponents I could fight, Pacquiao is the best person. Also, since he is the champion and that’s what’s changed. To win a 5th title against him gives me extra motivation, and because he is the best fighter in all of the organizations, so Pacquiao makes sense.”

Pacquiao definitely makes sense for Marquez to get another big payday, and Paquiao is probably the only champion at 147 that Marquez has a good chance at beating at this point. We already know that he can’t beat Mayweather after he lost badly to him in 2009, and Marquez would have considerable problems against a guy like IBF champion Shawn Porter due to his power, size and heavy pressure style of fighting. Porter rehydrates to 160s when he fights, and there’s no way he would agree to defending his title at a catch weight against Marquez.

Contrary to what Marquez says about Alvarado’s size not being a factor, I think it will be in this fight. Alvarado is a big fighter with a lot of power, and he’s going to make it very tough for Marquez to win a non controversial decision. Marquez needs a decision or a knockout that is clear cut so that he doesn’t go into a 5th fight with Pacquiao with a tainted win over Alvarado. That would be a huge blow for the card because boxing fans likely won’t want to pay to see Pacquiao fight Marquez for a 5th time if they feel that Marquez should have lost his last fight against Alvarado.



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