By Eric Thomas: Undefeated flyweight contender Hernan “Tyson” Marquez (25-0, 18 KO’s) defeated the tough Juan Esquer (25-6-1, 19 KO’s) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Saturday night in the undercard of the Latin Fury show at the Grand Mayan, Nuevo Vallarta, in Nayarit, Mexico. The final judges’ scores were 98-92, 99-91 and 100-91. The fight, however, was much closer than the final scores would have you believe. I had Marquez winning by a close decision six rounds to four.
Although nicknamed “Tyson,” Marquez showed a lot of flaws with game, starting with his lack of aggression and poor work rate. He clearly was the harder puncher on Saturday night but he didn’t throw enough punches to take advantage of his better power and let Esquer push the fight for the full 10 rounds.
The southpaw Marquez looked good in the first two rounds, circling the ring and landing jabs and straight left hands. Esquer, 22, did little in these two rounds and the fight looked as if it was going to be a mismatch at this point. Marquez, ranked number #12 in the World Boxing Association flyweight division, fought very calmly, holding back with his power punches as if he had a loaded gun.
Only rarely did Marquez put everything he had in his shots. Unfortunately, this led to problems in the 3rd round as Esquer discovered that he could score by throwing flurries. Instead of backing away or trying to answer back, Marquez covered up and tried to block the shots.
Indeed, he blocked many of them but because of the sheer volume of punches that Esquer was unloading on him during the round, many of the shots leaked through and caught Marquez to head. Late in the round, Esquer trapped Marquez against the ropes and nailed him with a flurry of big shots. His punches didn’t have nearly the same amount of steam on them as Marquez, but they were still landing none the less and giving Marquez problems.
Marquez started off strong in the 4th round, catching Esquer repeatedly with right hand uppercuts as he came rushing forward. However, in the 2nd part of the round, Esquer overwhelmed Marquez with punches and completely shut down his offense in the process.
In the 5th, Esquer continued pressuring Marquez all around the ring, throwing enormous amounts of punches with many of them missing. However, a lot still got through the gloves of Marquez and connected. Marquez was still fighting much too patiently and not firing back with enough shots.
In rounds six through eight, Esquer outworked Marquez by a significant margin, throwing over twice as many punches and keeping him under constant fire. Marquez looked to have landed enough of his harder shots in the 6th to capture the round, but it was close because he was out-landed by a big margin by Esquer. In the 7th round, Esquer nailed Marquez with a tremendous right hand that snapped his head around.
Esquer then attacked him hard and unloaded with a sustained flurry of shots in the last minute of the round. Esquer continued with his furious onslaught in the 8th, hammering Marquez with massive amounts of punches and not giving him an opportunity to answer back. In the process of trying to take Marquez out, Esquer seemed to have tired himself out. This allowed Marquez to come on in the 9th and 10th rounds and land some big shots and win the rounds.
Marquez got the win, but he needs a lot of work if he expects to compete in the flyweight division for a title. He hits hard, but doesn’t throw enough punches, and doesn’t move his head. He’ll have problems against better fighters in the division unless he makes some changes soon.
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In other action in the undercard, Juan Alberto Rosas (30-5, 25 KO’s) defeated Alejandro Martinez (16-2-1, 11 KO’s) by a 10-round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 99-91, 99-91 and 100-87. The scores were way off in this fight too. I had Rosas winning six rounds to four.
Martinez totally dominated the first four rounds, standing close to Rosas and throwing massive amounts of punches and getting the better of the action. Rosas was throwing very little in these rounds and just looking discouraged as he took a lot of punishment.
However, after the 4th round, Martinez looked exhausted and his work rate went way down. Rosas then took over the fight and began to unload on Martinez with mostly right hands for the next six rounds. Both fighters were confused at the end of the 9th, mistakenly thinking the fight was over and congratulating each other.
Rosas, after getting some advice from boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez in between rounds, Rosas came out and pounded Martinez’s body for the entire three minutes of the 10th and final round. It was a good strategy because Martinez looked like he was wilting from the shots by the end of the fight.