By Sean McDaniel: There’s little question that Juan Manuel Marquez has the deck stacked against him going into this Saturday night’s bout against unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. In almost every department, Mayweather, 32, is better than Marquez, save for a few such as heart, recent activity and hunger. However, Marquez, 36, might be able to beat Mayweather if he can out-think him and capitalize on any mistakes that Mayweather makes in the bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Marquez often takes advantage of his opponents’ mistakes, and is able to adapt after a few rounds to take charge of a fight. This has been the case Marquez’s fights against Manny Pacquiao, Chris John, Marco Antonio Barrera, Rocky Juarez and Juan Diaz.
In terms of talent, Marquez is probably nowhere near Mayweather, who was born with amazing hand speed and athletic ability. What Marquez has to depend on in this fight is his mind, so that he can quickly figure out what Mayweather is doing, notice any trends that Mayweather might have, and then devise a strategy on the fly to use against him.
Thus far, it’s worked every time for Marquez, because three of Marquez’s defeats in his career have come by questionable decisions. I’ve personally seen Marquez’s losses to Freddie Norwood, John, and Pacquiao, and I think Marquez won all three of them, including his 12 round draw with Pacquiao in 2004.
The only loss that I see Marquez suffering is his 1st round disqualification in 1993 to Javier Duran, and that loss hardly counts either other than in the record book. So essentially, Mayweather Jr. is fighting an opponent whose real record should be 55-0 instead of 50-4-1. This means that Marquez doesn’t know how to lose, and is coming into the fight with an even more impressive record than Mayweather. Still, as great as he is, Marquez is going to have to find a way to nullify Mayweather’s speed and size advantage in this fight somehow.
Marquez will need to use his counter punching ability to tag Mayweather with shots as he comes in looking to land shots. Marquez used counter punching like an artist in his two fights with Pacquiao, hitting him often with uppercuts when the Filipino would stray too close after throwing one of his big power shots.
Marquez also needs to take advantage of Mayweather’s ribs, and try to land as many hard body shots as possible in that area. Mayweather was rumored to be hurt in training by a sparring partner who specialized in throwing body shots.
Marquez, an excellent body puncher himself, needs to devote a certain amount of his game in that area. I wouldn’t put too much focus on the body, however, because Mayweather will eat Marquez up with short punches if Marquez drops his head and puts all his energy into throwing to the body. This is what happened to Ricky Hatton when he faced Mayweather.
He tried to go to the body and found himself getting hit with a ton of short, fast combinations to the head and body, Mayweather, in fact, landed the better body shots in the fight, beating Hatton at his own game.
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