By Eric Thomas: At yesterday’s press conference on the 80th floor of the Empire State building in New York, Juan Manuel Marquez chose his words carefully, making sure that he only said good things about his July 18th opponent undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. (39-0, 25 KOs), saying that he sees him as being the same fighter he was before suddenly retiring after defeating British light welterweight Ricky Hatton in a 10th round TKO in December 2007.
Marquez, the World Boxing Association lightweight champion, has lucked out in having Mayweather Jr. select him as his first opponent after such a long layoff from the sport.
A lot of things have changed since Mayweather last fought. Before quitting in 2007, Mayweather was thought to be the best fighter in boxing by quite a few of the fans and writers. However, since he’s been away, Mayweather had been largely forgotten by the fan base that had moved on towards other stars.
In the void that Mayweather left, little Filipino star Manny Pacquiao moved in and has seemingly claimed the number #1 pound for pound spot that Mayweather formerly held, despite the fact that Pacquiao hasn’t fought in what some boxing experts a true world class fighter since his controversial 12-round split decision defeat of Marquez last year in March 2008.
Pacquiao has stayed busy, beating a weight drained weakened 36-year-old Oscar De La Hoya in December 2008, and then a shot-looking, and defense lacking Hatton in a 2nd round blow out on May 2nd. Boxing often being more about perception than reality, Pacquiao has been crowned as the number #1 fighter in the sport despite not having fought Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley or Mayweather.
Marquez is figuring that he deserves a rematch with Pacquiao and is looking to beat Mayweather on July 18th to ensure that this forces Pacquiao’s hand for a trilogy fight between the two fighters.
Marquez isn’t seeing Mayweather as anything that he was before he retired, and that’s a good thing he is because Mayweather has a lot of things going for him in this fight – size, speed, and reach. However, Marquez has convinced himself that his lack of size won’t be a factor against Mayweather.
However, that remains to be seen, because Mayweather had an almost equal size advantage over Hatton in their December 2007 bout, and Hatton wasn’t able to do much against Mayweather, getting drilled from the outside with jabs and straight right hands through much of the fight.
When Hatton was able to work his way on the inside, he found Mayweather peppering him with fast combinations and pin point straight right hands. Hatton was no match, and stayed around until the 10th at which point Mayweather mercifully took him out with some hard combinations.
Mayweather has reportedly been training for the past couple of months for the July 18th fight, and is reportedly already at the 147 pound fighting weight.
For his part, Marquez is trying to put weight on his 135 pound frame, needing to put on enough so that he’s not bullied around by Mayweather, but not too much that it takes the speed away from Marquez.
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