By Allan Fox: Former IBF/WBA/WBC super flyweight champion Cristian Mijares (46-6-2, 21 KO’s) will be fighting former two division world champion Rafael Marquez (41-7, 37 KO’s) for the vacant WBC Silver super bantamweight title on October 27th at the Arena Cuidad de Mexico, in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.

Both Mijares and Marquez have moved up in weight to the super bantamweight as they’ve aged but neither are considered a major player at super bantamweight despite the fact that they’re fighting for the WBC Silver bantamweight strap. It’s just a trinket offered up by the World Boxing Council to try and give the fight some kind of meaning when there’s not much to get from this given their positions in the division.

Marquez hasn’t been the same since he finished his four wars with Israel Vazquez. Marquez was one of the top fighters at bantamweight from 2003 to 2006. When Marquez moved up to super bantamweight he was no longer as effective as he was, as he got caught up with fighting Vazquez over and over again for big paydays. Those fights took a lot out of Marquez and in hindsight he probably should have cut his losses after the first fight with Vazquez because he might be still a relevant fighter if he had sparred himself the damage he took in those fights.

Marquez has lost two out of his last four fights in losses to Juan Manuel Lopez and Toshiaki Nishioka. Marquez fought Nishioka really tough and might have been able to get the win if he hadn’t faced in the late half of the fight. If he had been able to fight hard for the full 12, he would have beaten Nishioka. He needed more power to win that fight, because Toshiaki was looking like a faded fighter ready to be beaten.

Mijares has brought his career back a little by winning his last 10 fights after having lost three consecutive fights against the likes of Vic Darchinyan and Nehomar Cermeno. Mijares hasn’t beaten anyone really good in ages, so he’s definitely going to be there for Marquez to beat if Marquez doesn’t run out of gas again like he did against Nishioka.