By Dan Ambrose: James Kirkland pulling out of his February 25 fight against former four division world champion Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) has been great news for Mexican warrior Juan Manuel Marquez (57-7-1, 40 KOs), as him and Cotto are in negotiations for a fight in September on HBO pay-per-view.
Marquez will be turning 44-years-old on August 23, but his advanced age likely won’t keep the Cotto-Marquez fight from doing well on HBO PPV if the fans remember who he is. Marquez has been out of the ring for nearly 3 years, but Cotto still wants to fight him.
Cotto is obviously counting on the hardcore boxing fans being interested in seeing two of them face each other rather than someone more relevant and a lot younger like the 26-year-old Jermall Charlo. Cotto is probably not too keen on fighting a dangerous guy like Charlo, even though a lot of boxing fans would like to see the two of them face each other.
This is supposed to be Cotto’s last year in the sport. He’s going to be fighting in September and then in December, possibly against Saul Canelo Alvarez.
The idea is that Marquez will take a tune-up fight before facing Cotto in September. It’s important that Marquez take a tune-up because he hasn’t fought since 2014 when he beat Mike Alvarado by a 12 round decision. Cotto, 36, may take a tune-up fight as well.
It’s unclear whether Cotto’s tune-up fight will be on HBO PPV. You can argue that Cotto’s previously scheduled February 25 fight against James Kirkland was little more than a tune-up fight. There were a lot of boxing fans that didn’t like the idea of Cotto vs. Kirkland being on pay-per-view, because they saw the fight as a tune-up fight.
“I advised Juan Manuel to take a (tune-up) fight is in June because I have enough commitments and I cannot be with him all the time,” said Marquez’s trainer Nacho Beristáin to ennuevodia.com. “The comment that Juan Manuel made to me is that they are going to do a tune-up fight for the two and then they are going to fight there by September,” said Beristain.
The weight for the Cotto-Marquez fight will likely be above 147. Marquez may need to agree to fight Cotto at a catch-weight of 150lbs, which is six pounds heavier than his highest weight for his career. Marquez fought most of his career at featherweight.
Marquez started moving up in weight 10 years ago in 2007 in slowing moving from super featherweight to lightweight, light welterweight and finally welterweight. Marquez is clearly not a welterweight though. He was able to do well in beating Pacquiao at welterweight in their fourth fight in 2012, but Marquez looked bad in losing to Tim Bradley in 2013 and then struggling to defeat Mike Alvarado in 2014.