By Dan Ambrose: The 42-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs) is considering fighting on Cinco de Mayo in May 2016 if he can get the motivation needed to come back to the ring. Right now, Marquez is still undecided if he’ll fight again. But if he does come back, he wants to fight a final time in May of next year in Mexico City, Mexico.
Don’t expect much from Marquez though, as he’ll have been out of the ring for two years by the time he does fight, and he’ll be almost 43. It won’t be the Marquez that knocked Manny Pacquiao out cold in 2012. There will be four years difference from that Marquez and the one that could be fighting in 2016.
“I have to have the urge to go running, go training, sparring. We must take this into account, and if that happens to be then I may [come back],” Marquez said to estoenlonea.oem.com.mx.
This is the same place where Marquez has been stuck at since 2014. He’s been undecided for close to two years now about whether he should continue his career or not. Marquez injured one of his knees in his last fight in 2014 against Mike Alvarado. Since then, Marquez has been out of the ring. It’s unclear whether his knee has healed as of yet. But even if it has, we’re now talking about a soon to be 43-year-old fighter with a lot of mileage on him, and two years of inactivity.
Marquez could probably get a big money fight against Manny Pacquiao if he showed interest in taking that fight by telling Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum. It would still attract a lot of interest from boxing fans despite the advanced age of the two fighters and the inactivity. Pacquiao will have been out of the ring for an entire year by the time he fights in 2016.
Pacquiao also lost a year of his career following his knockout loss to Marquez in 2012.
If Marquez does come back for a final fight in May 2016, it’s difficult to picture him facing anyone difficult for that fight. I think he’ll want to end his career on a positive note rather than facing a young lion that could beat him and send him into retirement with a loss.
The thing is that Marquez’s age and inactivity could make him vulnerable to even beatable opposition. That’s how it is when you’ve been out of the ring for as long as Marquez has. We also don’t know what the condition is of Marquez’s injured knee. If he’s still having problems with his knee, then it’s going to be difficult for him potentially to fight at a high level against his opponent in May 2016.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum would likely jump at the chance of matching Marquez against some of his stable fighters like Terence Crawford, Pacquiao or Tim Bradley if he gives the 83-year-old promoter a phone call. Those would all be potentially bad fights for Marquez right now, but he would at least be able to end his career with a big payday rather than taking smaller money to fight a weak opponent.
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