By Dan Ambrose: Former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) made weight in Friday’s weigh-in for his fight tomorrow night against Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) at the Forum, in Inglewood, California, USA. Marquez weighed in at 141.6 lbs, and he looked thin and drained for the fight. Marquez is an expert at making weight, but he had room to come in closer to the weight limit and didn’t need to come in this light. For his part, Alvarado weighed in at 143.2 lbs. The catch weight limit for the fight is 143 lbs. Marquez didn’t make a big deal about Alvarado being slightly over the limit.
The Marquez-Alvarado fight isn’t an official eliminator, but it amounts to the same because their promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank has already let it be known that he’s going to have the winner of the Marquez-Alvarado fight challenger WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao later this year.
“This fight is important for the two fighters because Mike Alvarado lost his last fight and I lost my last fight and he wants to win and I want to win and this is a great fight for the two of us,” said Marquez. “I feel excited to fight again in this historic building. I see a lot of old faces. A lot of people know I don’t talk outside the ring; I do my job in the ring. For this fight I have three points in my mind. One, Mike Alvarado is a strong fighter, he’s a great fighter and I have a tough fight.
“Secondly, I prepared myself very hard for this fight because this fight will be a war. Finally, the people will see a great, great fight because Mike Alvarado wants to win the fight; I want to win the fight. This fight will be a war!,” said Marquez.
If Alvarado loses the fight, he’ll likely be matched against Brandon Rios in a third fight together. Their previous two fights have gathered a great deal of attention, and I wouldn’t expect anything different despite both guys’ recent defeats. If Marquez loses to Alvarado then it’s quite possible that he’ll retire from the sport or at the very least take a long time off before possibly getting back in the ring for one last attempt to put himself in line for a welterweight title.
Alvarado has the size, power, and youth advantage over Marquez in this fight, and he could cause him a lot of problems if he’s unable to land enough counter shots to get a stoppage. If Alvarado is able to hang around for the full 12 rounds of the fight, Marquez is going to wind up taking a lot of punishment because Alvarado has heavy hands.
Marquez is going to need to raise his workout considerably for him to win this fight, because he’s not going to get the job done throwing 30 punches per round. Alvarado is capable of throwing twice that many, and he’ll do damage with his shots if Marquez doesn’t stop him.
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Other weights on the card:
Viktor Postol 139.6 vs. Selcuk Aydin 139.2
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