By Jason Kim: If you’re looking for excitement this Saturday night, then look no further than the lightweight match-up between former super featherweight champions Juan Manuel Marquez (48-4, 35 KOs) and Joel Casamayor (36-3, 22 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round bout at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada. Both fighters are getting up there in age, but Marquez, 35, appears to have much more left in the tank as evidenced by his 12-round split decision loss to Manny Pacquiao in March 2008. By most accounts, Marquez appeared to win the fight but found himself on the losing end of a questionable split decision to the more popular Pacquiao.
Unable to get attain a rematch with Pacquiao, who instead has opted to face Oscar De La Hoya, Marquez then chose to move up from the super featherweight division to the lightweights to find greener pastures. He was quickly able to land a fight with former Cuban amateur star Casamayor, which he hopes will be the beginning of finding other big fights in the division, such as a bout with Nate Campbell or possibly a rematch with Pacquiao, who already moved up to the lightweight division and is a current World Boxing Council lightweight champion after a win over David Diaz.
Casamayor, 37, is a two-time super featherweight champion and current WBO interim title holder who is still fighting effectively despite his advanced age of 37. His best years are clearly behind him, but as he showed in his last bout, a 10th round comeback TKO win over Michel Katisidis, he still has a few tricks up his old sleeves. His power was very much there in the first round against Katisidis when he knocked the Australian down twice in the 1st round.
After Katisidis settled down, he retook control over the fight and had a slight lead going into the 10th round when Casamayor came back to live and nailed Katisidis with a big left hand sending him down. The fight didn’t last much longer with Casamayor finishing Katsidis off with a flurry of shots causing the referee to step in and halt the fight. This was Casamayor at his finest.
Although on paper Casamayor and Marquez seem pretty well evenly matched, Marquez looks to be the much better fighter overall between the two.
Marquez has extraordinary boxing skills, power, defense and best of all a strong chin. Casamayor has been showing signs of slipping for the past five years, having lost to Diego Corrales, Jose Luis Castillo, and probably should have lost to Jose Armando Santa Cruz, a fighter that Casamayor won by a controversial split decision in November 2007. Not to take anything away from Santa Cruz, but Marquez is probably much better than him and would figure to give Casamayor a lot of problems with his offense and defensive skills.
Casamayor still has good power, a sneaky uppercut, but these weapons might not be enough to defeat Marquez or even stay competitive with him. The outlook is dim for Casamayor. Look for Marquez to dominate with his combinations, hitting Casamayor often, outworking him and shutting down his uppercuts on the inside. Casamayor doesn’t have the stamina to fight as long and as hard as he used to, so look for him to slow down as the fight gets to the later rounds.
Prediction: Marquez by unanimous decision