By David Lahr: World Boxing Council super bantamweight champion Israel Vazquez (42-4, 31 KOs) will defend his title in the rubber match between him and challenger Rafael Marquez (37-4, 33 KOs) on March 1st at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California. This is a bout that reminiscent of the ancient gladiators as both fighters have laid their heart out in two previous fights, trading shot for shot and taking turns hurting each other with scorching shots to the head.
Both fighters have split victories in the first two fights, with Marquez winning the first bout when Vazquez quit after the 7th round due to a broken nose which prevented him from breaking properly, and then in the second fight, Vazquez returned the favor by stopping Marquez in the 6th round when the fight looked to be prematurely stopped by referee Guadalupe Garcia shortly after Marquez got up off the canvas after being flatted by a left hook from Vazquez.
In the first fight fought on March 3rd 2007, Marquez appeared to get the upper hand early on with the use of a hard jab which he kept in Vazquez’s face constantly, keeping him effectively at a distance. Marquez’s jab was incredibly powerful, as he used it to snap Vazquez’s head back over and over again, setting him up for a right hands that he would land right behind them. By the midpoint of the first round, Vazquez’s nose was already bleeding from the constant jabs that Marquez was raining in on him. Shortly before the first round ended, Marquez tagged Vazquez with a left uppercut to the bottom portion of his nose. This was perhaps the time where Vazquez’s nose was broken for it landed perfectly and backed Vazquez up. Just before the round ended, Marquez hit Vazquez’s with a big right hand that staggered Vazquez badly.
In the second round, Marquez, the more technically polished of the two fighters, continued using his jab to keep Vazquez on the outside where he was unable to land his powerful left hooks and right hands. For his part, Marquez landed well with right hands in the round to the head of Vazquez. It was a big round for Marquez, who was rarely hit by Vazquez.
Marquez hurt Vazquez with a right hand early in the third round. However, while attempting to follow up with more shots, Marquez was stopped by a big left hook from Vazquez, who timed him perfectly as Marquez was coming in close to land one of his own shots. It was a lesson for Marquez, as it showed what happens when Vazquez is able to get in close where he can connect with his own power shots. Oddly enough, Marquez came back strong in the round and was landing with big right hands as the round came to a close.
Marquez dominated rounds four and five with his jabs, which began to cause Vazquez a lot of problems. In the 5th round, Vazquez turned around and started moving towards the ropes as if to quit after getting hit with two consecutive jabs to the nose from Marquez.
The sixth round saw more of the same with Marquez landing beautiful jabs to the head of Vazquez and keeping him from getting his own shots off. It’s not that he wasn’t trying but he couldn’t really do much because of the fact that he was stuck on the outside for most of the round. Vazquez, though about the same height as Marquez, has considerably shorter arms, which prevented him from trading with Marquez on the outside.
Vazquez came back well in the 7th round, landing some big left hooks to the head. However, Marquez continued landing jabs and firing back with left hooks and right hands to the face of Vazquez. It looked as if Vazquez had won the round, but nevertheless, after the round ended, Vazquez called it quits and asked the referee to stop the fight because he was having problems breathing out of his nose.
In the second bout between the two fighters on August 4th 2007, Vazquez came into the bout with a different trainer, having replaced Freddie Roach with Rudy Perez. Additionally, Vazquez’s nose was in better shape as he’d had surgery 10 days after the first bout to remove cartilage and blood clots. Vaquez had used a protective guard while in training to prevent his injured nose from getting re-broken from getting hit again. So this essentially was the first time that Vazquez had fought without the protective guard since being injured.
In the first round, Marquez controlled the action, shooting a constant jab in the face of Vaquez. However, Marquez, despite throwing his jab frequently in the round, he wasn’t using his jab as often than in his first fight. This allowed Vazquez to get in closer than he had in the prior fight, close enough so that he was able to land several powerful left hands in the first round. Not enough to win it, however, but it seemed to set a standard for the entire bout.
Marquez appeared to win the second round with his superior work, landing well with both jabs and right hands. In contrast, Vazquez did little until late in the round when he was able to land several big left hooks to the head of Marquez. At the end of the round, Marquez’s right eye showed swelling underneath, whereas Vazquez had a small cut on the bridge of his nose.
Early in the 3rd round, Marquez was hurt by a big left hook by Vazquez, causing him to stagger and back up a few steps. Marquez came back to land his own shots in the round, at points out-landing Vazquez. However, it was Vazquez’s heavier shots that did more damage. Marquez was still failing to use his jab, allowing Vazquez to get in close range so that he could tee-off with his hooks.
Marquez came back to win rounds four and five, as he landed well with right hands and left hooks to the head. He was still getting hit much more often than in the first fight, but his handspeed and more voluminous punching allowed for him to win both rounds. At one point in the fifth round, Vazquez went down after getting hit by a right hand from Marquez. However, the referee Guadalupe Garcia called it a slip. Immediately after action was resumed, it seemed as if Marquez let up on Vazquez, as if disappointed at losing what appeared to be legitimate knockdown. Vazquez took advantage of Marquez’s lull in punching to get back into the round and land several left hands to close the round. It still appeared that Marquez had won the round due to his work over three-fourths of the round. However, he looked like a different fighter after losing the knock down by the referee.
Immediately at the start of the sixth round, Vazquez would drop Marquez with a big left hook. The punch seemed no more powerful than the one in the previous five rounds, but Marquez just looked fed up still from the previous round. Upon getting up Marquez was greeted with a flurry of punches from Vazquez, most of them missing badly. Marquez fired back with one of his own shots, but then was knocked off balance when Vazquez bumped into him, causing him to stagger slightly as he tried to get his footing together. Seeing this, the referee Guadalupe Garcia quickly moved in and halted the bout at 1:16 of the sixth round. It looked to be a bad call by the referee since Marquez was fighting back just as he had earlier in the fight when he was momentarily hurt by a punch.
The referee, though, wanted to prevent Marquez from potentially getting hurt so he played it safe by halting the fight perhaps a little too early. I doubt that Marquez would have lasted the round, but who knows? He might have, but he would have had serious issues in the following rounds because of his tendency to allow Vazquez to come in close where he could land his own shots. Obviously, in their third bout on March 1st, Marquez is going to need to go back to the drawing board and attempt to recapture his fighting style of their first fight, for he will likely have a hard time winning if he continues to try and trade with Vazquez on the inside.