By Dan Ambrose: 42-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs) says he plans on fighting two more times before he retires from the sport and wraps up his long pro career. Just when Marquez plans on fighting again is unclear at this point. He’s interested in fighting for a fifth division world title, and presumably that would be against one of the welterweight champions.
Marquez is also interested in fighting Miguel Cotto, but that’s a fight that wouldn’t involve a world title due to Cotto recently getting beaten by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. One problem with Marquez fighting for a title is the fact that he’s not ranked by any of the sanctioning bodies at this time in the 147lb division because of his long period of inactivity.
Marquez hasn’t fought in almost two years since his win over Mike Alvarado in May 2014.
“I would make two fights, one of preparation and retirement, and a good opponent; a champion looking for that fifth title,” said Marquez to ESPN Deportes.
Marquez still has a knee problem that he’s monitoring, and he’s going to have to make sure he can fight well enough with the problem for him to come back. If Marquez fights with only one good knee, he might not even be able to beat a weak opponent much less a world champion. It would be a bad idea to throw Marquez in the ring with a fighter like Miguel Cotto off of a two-year absence from the ring and with a knee problem.
Marquez would have major problems with the 35-year-old Cotto’s power and size, even though the two of them are both the same height at 5’7″. Cotto has been active, he’s younger, stronger, and he’s much heavier. Marquez weighs in the low 140s for his fights. Cotto would have probably come into the ring in the low 160s, and have a 20-pound weight advantage over Marquez.
“The knee has gone well. I think that in the coming days may be important news,” Marquez said to estoenlinea.oem.com.mx. “That is my wish to do two more fights. Let’s see if the body responds and give me things. I do not want to rush anything, but that is the idea that I have to say goodbye and boxing after 30 years of amateur and professional boxer,” said Marquez.
What Marquez should do is challenge Manny Pacquiao to a fifth fight if he beats WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley in their fight on April 9. Pacquiao might elect to stick around a little while longer to take the fight with Marquez, which would be the fifth fight between them. Pacquiao has a reason to want to fight Marquez again because he knocked him out in the 6th round in 2012. A fight between them would give Marquez his best chance for a big payday before he retires. It would be worth it financially to take the Pacquiao fight, and it would give Marquez a better chance of winning a title than if he were to face someone like Keith Thurman or Kell Brook. Marquez might do well against WBC champion Danny Garcia, but there would be no money in that fight like there would be if he fought Pacquiao again. The last time they fought each other in 2012, their fight brought in over 1 million PPV buys on HBO.
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