Marquez concerned About the Speed of Mayweather

By Boxing News - 08/25/2009 - Comments

marquez4534By Jim Dower: Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KO’s) expressed concern with the speed of unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. (39-0, 25 KO’s) in an conference call today, saying “Mayweather is coming with a lot of speed and that is always difficult to deal with.”

Marquez is correct in being worried about Mayweather’s hand speed, because Floyd is every bit as fast as Manny Pacquiao, who Marquez was fought to a standstill against on two occasions, but Mayweather is much tougher to fight because he takes few chances offensively and he’s very sound on the defensive sides of the game.

Although Marquez has respectable hand speed of his own, he’s not nearly as fast as Mayweather and will have to come up with another plan to counteract this advantage. Mayweather says, “We will have to counter the speed using the strategy I’ve used in all my fights, timing and counter punching.”

The timing worked well against Pacquiao in both of Marquez’s fights against the Filipino star. However, Marquez had an advantage in that Pacquiao was constantly pushing the fight by attacking the counter punching Marquez. This created a lot of opportunities that might not have been there for Marquez had he been forced to be the aggressor.

Against Mayweather, a very offensively reluctant fighter, Marquez may be forced to take the fight to Mayweather, because Floyd is often content to move around laterally throwing occasional counter punches and mainly jabbing lightly. Marquez could easily survive a 12 round fight by not attacking Mayweather, but he’ll likely end up losing the fight by a lopsided decision, though.

One advantage that Marquez will have is that he’s fought most of his career at featherweight and super featherweight and is used to fighting opponent with quick movements and fast hand speed like Mayweather. It will be less of a shock for Marquez than it would be for a normal welterweight who might not be used to fighting quicker fighters like Mayweather.

Marquez said, “Mayweather will be more difficult for me than Pacquiao .He’s a counter puncher who is very fast and he’s also a defensive boxer.” Marquez will need to be ready to fire back on Mayweather when Floyd counters his own shots.

Marquez can’t let Mayweather get better of him in exchanges because Marquez will end up falling behind in the fight if that happens. Marquez doesn’t have the kind of crushing power that some of the stronger fighters in the lightweight division have, so he’ll have to focus on firing back with combinations when Mayweather throws his counter shots.

Mayweather had problems with Oscar De La Hoya in their fight in 2007, fighting at such a slow pace that the fight ended up much closer than it might have been otherwise. This is an area where Marquez can take advantage of Mayweather. Floyd doesn’t like to throw a lot of punches because he’s almost entirely a counter puncher. Marquez needs to be busier than Mayweather in order to win enough rounds to get the decision.

Marquez, 36, is bulking up for this fight and there are concerns about whether the added muscle that Marquez is putting on might slow him down for the fight. However, Marquez’s trainer Nacho Beristain says that the extra muscle has made Marques faster and not slower.

Whether this is in fact true is unknown at this point. Usually, fighters that put on weight, whether it be muscle or fat, are often slower than before. They may be able to disguise the speed loss for several rounds but sooner or later there diminished speed starts to show itself. Marquez will likely look good in the first four or five rounds, but the extra weight will probably hamper him by slowing him down after that.



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