By Jason Kim: Juan Manuel Marquez (49-4-1, 36 KOs) is hoping to keep the pressure on Manny Pacquiao by defeating Juan Diaz (34-1, 17 KOs) in a 12-round bout for the vacant WBA/WBO lightweight titles at the Toyota Center, in Houston, Texas. Marquez, 35, was defeated by Pacquiao by a 12-round split decision in March, and Juan would like nothing better than to get another shot against Pacquiao if possible.
That’s not to say that this Saturday’s fight against Diaz isn’t something that Marquez is looking forward to, but the Diaz bout will only be offering Marquez a fraction of money what he would get in a third fight with Pacquiao. However, getting by Diaz will be a tough obstacle to say the least, as Diaz has the youth and work rate going for him this Saturday night and unless Marquez can keep the fight on the outside, Diaz could outwork him for the decision.
Let’s be clear, though, neither of these fighters will be scoring a knockout. Diaz doesn’t punch hard enough and Marquez probably won’t be able to dent Diaz’s sturdy chin.
Marquez has unfinished business with Pacquiao, who besides the fight in March, he fought to a 12-round draw in May 2004. Marquez was knocked down three times in the opening round of the fight and looked to be in danger of being stopped.
However, Marquez rose from the canvas and dominated most of the remainder of the bout with his superior boxing skills. Unfortunately, the judges’ failed to reward his command of the fight and ruled it a draw. In the rematch four years later, Marquez again dominated Pacquiao through vast stretches of the fight and appeared to win it. However, again the judges’ seemed to get the scoring wrong and this time gave Pacquiao a close victory.
Immediately after, Marquez tried to get a rematch with Pacquiao but thus far he’s had no luck. A win against a quality fighter like Diaz, however, will go a long ways towards forcing Pacquiao to look in Marquez’s direction because he won’t be able to continue to ignore Marquez if the boxing fans see him beating Diaz on Saturday night. For his part, Pacquiao is fighting Ricky Hatton in May.
In the other fight on Saturday’s card, WBA featherweight champion Chris John (42-0, 22 KOs) will be traveling to the U.S for the first time to defend his title against Rocky Juarez (28-4, 20 KOs). For many Americans, this will be the first time that they’ve seen the 29-year-old John who holds a win over Juan Manuel Marquez in a 12-round decision in 2006.
With his undefeated record, his win over Marquez, John has many boxing fans curious about how good he really is. Unfortunately, the bout against Marquez has been seen by few fans and the ones that have seen it, mostly see Marquez on the receiving end of a hometown decision.
Juarez, 28, a former 2000 Olympian for the U.S., has wins over Zahir Raheem, Guty Espadas Jr and Jorge Rodrigo Barrios. However, in the past four years Juarez’s run into trouble when stepping it up against stiffer competition, losing to Humberto Soto, Marco Antonio Barrera (twice) and most recently to Marquez in November 2007. The first loss to Barrera, a 12-round split decision loss in May 2006, ended up being quite controversial, as Juarez appeared to win the fight.
Juarez will be moving down from super featherweight to take this fight on Saturday night against John. As such, Juarez will probably easily be the stronger fighter of the two and will be trying to put pressure on John as much as possible. John has little power and likes to mainly use his lab and fight at a slow pace. It’s up to Juarez to try and pressure him as much as possible and make John fight going backwards. Marquez did an exceptional job of doing this and essentially dominated the fight from the 3rd round on until the end.
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