Juan Manuel Marquez Bio

By Boxing News - 01/28/2009 - Comments

marquez5455By Sam Gregory: Juan Manuel Marquez comes from a strong boxing pedigree. His brother, Rafael Marquez, is a former world champion who has won world titles at the bantamweight and super bantamweight divisions. Marquez had an amateur record of 35-1 that included two Golden Glove tournament wins. He made his professional debut at the age of 19 on May 29th, 1993 and lost his first bout by way of disqualification to Javier Duran.

Marquez wouldn’t lose again for another six years as he compiled a record of 29-1 that included a win over future champion Agapito Sanchez, and former champion Julio Gervacio and Alfred Kotey. In 1997, Marquez won the NABO featherweight title, which he defended seven times.

Marquez earned his first shot at a world title on September 11th, 1999, when he lost a controversial 12 round decision to then unbeaten champion Freddie Norwood.

On November 20th, 1999 Marquez stopped Remigio Molina in eight rounds. In August of 2000, Marquez defeated former champion Daniel Jimenez and five fights later, he stopped future champion Robbie Peden in ten rounds for the NABF and USBA featherweight titles.

In May of 2004, Marquez fought the man recognized as the number one pound for pound fighter in the world, Manny Pacquiao to a draw; in the fight Marquez was knocked down three times in the first round. Marquez was never able to overcome those early points deficit which many believe is the reason the fight ended in a draw. The result was controversial as judge Burt Clements scored the first round as 10-7 for Pacquiao instead of what normally would have been 10-6; this was the anomaly that caused the fight to be called a draw instead of a split decision for Pacquiao. The final scores on the judge’s cards were, John Stewart had it 110-115 for Marquez, Guy Jutras had it 115-110 for Pacquiao and Burt Clements had it 113-113.

On September 18th, 2004, Marquez defeated future champion Orlando Salido. In 2005 Marquez was stripped of his WBA and IBF belts for his inability to defend them against various boxers after potential bouts failed to draw a bid. In 2006 Marquez attempted to regain the WBA featherweight title coming up short in a controversial decision loss to Indonesian boxer Chris John. The disputed decision led to Ring magazines removal of Marquez from their top ten pound for pound list.

In August of 2006, Marquez captured the WBO Interim Featherweight title when he stopped Terdstak Jandaeng of Thailand in 7 rounds. Three months later Marquez successfully defended the title with a 9th round knockout of Pilipino boxer Jimrex Jaca in Hidalgo, Texas. Later that same year Marquez was promoted to world champion status when the previous champion Scott Harrison vacated the title. Than in March of 2007 Marquez vacated the same title to challenge Marco Antonio Barrera for the WBC Super Featherweight title. Marquez ended up outpointing Barrera to win a unanimous decision.

In September of 2007 Argentinean boxer Jorge Rodrigo Barrios was scheduled to fight Marquez for the title but withdrew due to a last minute injury. American fighter Rocky Juarez took the challenge to no avail losing a 12 round unanimous decision.

In late November of 2007 the Marquez-Pacquiao rematch was announced. In a highly disputed split decision, Juan Manuel Marquez lost the Super Featherweight title to Manny Pacquiao on March 15th, 2008. According to Compubox scoring Marquez landed 42/201 (21%) of his jabs compared to Pacquiao’s 114/305 (14%) of his jabs. They also had Marquez landing 130/310 (42%) of his power punches compared to just 114/305 (37%) for Pacquiao. In spite of all this Pacquiao landed a powerful left that decked Marquez in the third round. The knockdown proved to be the deciding factor in the fight as the remaining rounds were scored even. The fight was controversial with some Filipino boxing analysts saying Marquez should have won the fight. Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy Promotions CEO, offered a $6 million guarantee to Pacquiao for a rematch. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum said, “I’m not saying they’ll never fight again, but you have to let it bake for a while”. Pacquiao, for his part said, “I don’t think so, this business is over” as he plans have been to move up to the lightweight division.

On September 13th, 2008 Juan Manuel Marquez moved to the lightweight division to fight the linear champion Joel Casamayor. Marquez defeated Casamayor when referee Tony Weeks called a halt to the fight after 11 rounds declaring Marquez the winner by way of an 11th round TKO. In the 11th round Marquez twice landed two perfectly timed right hand punches that caught Casamayor flush on the chin both flooring the champ causing Weeks to stop the fight 2:55 in the 11th round.

Many Casamayor fans were not happy with the early stoppage but Joel himself was gracious in defeat saying, “Marquez was the better man this night”. At the time of the stoppage the official judge’s cards read Glen Feldman 97-93 for Marquez, both judge’s Patricia Morse Jarman and Paul Smith had it scored even at 95-95.

The betting odds in Las Vegas at this time are all very close giving Juan Diaz a slight edge due to the “hometown advantage.” The fight at this time is still a full month away and I’m sure odds will change the closer we get to the opening bell.



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