Juan Manuel Marquez wants retirement fight

By Boxing News - 10/10/2016 - Comments

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By Chris Williams: After nearly three years out of the ring, former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez is talking about making a one-fight comeback for a retirement fight against an opponent still to be determined. The 43-year-old Marquez still isn’t sure whether he’ll come back or not. He wants to get some workouts in and then judge how his body responds before he makes the decision to return to boxing.

Marquez last fought in July of 2014 in beating Mike Alvarado by a 12 round decision. Marquez suffered a knee injury that has kept him out of the ring for the last two and a half years.
Marquez said to ESPN.com:
“II will not make a decision to return until my body tells me how I feel. If the body responds well, we are going to make a comeback. I have the desire to do a retirement fight. Let’s see how my bod responds when I go to the gym.”

Marquez says he feels good. Whether his knee problems have improved or not is the big question. It wouldn’t be a good idea for Marquez to return to the ring if his knee isn’t 100 percent.

Marquez was recently in negotiations with former four division world champion Miguel Cotto for a fight between them, but they couldn’t agree on the weight for a fight between them. With as much time that Marquez has been out of the ring, he probably should fight a less dangerous opponent than Cotto. That would be a risky fight for someone who hasn’t seen action for close to three years.

The proposed retirement fight might not interest a lot of boxing fans if Marquez doesn’t fight a good opponent. The fans will obviously respond favorably to the news of Marquez coming back, but they might not be too pleased at seeing him fight a lesser fighter.

Marquez is known by casual boxing fans in the United States for his four exciting fights against Manny Pacquiao. Marquez felt that he won the first three fights with Pacquiao, as did many fans. Going into his fourth fight with Pacquiao in 2012, Marquez decided he wasn’t going to let the judges decide on the outcome like he had in the past. So he went out and dropped Pacquiao once and then knocked him out cold in the 6th round with a right hand to the head.

The win made Marquez very, very happy, because he had finally taken the judges out of play and won a fight that couldn’t be taken away from him like in the first three fights.
A lot of boxing fans wouldn’t mind seeing Marquez and Pacquiao fight a fifth time. However, it’s doubtful the fight will happen. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is likely going to match him against Top Rank stable fighter Terence Crawford in his next fight after he faces Top Rank guy Jessie Vargas next month on November 5. If Pacquiao is still fighting after the Crawford fight, then it’s possible Arum might have a rematch in mind against Crawford or Vargas. In other words, I think Arum is going to keep Pacquiao stuck with in house Top Rank fights from now on until he retires for good from boxing.