By Eric Thomas: Floyd Mayweather Jr. was on his best behavior at his final press conference with Juan Manuel Marquez, saying mostly nice things. “”I have a lot of respect for Marquez. He hasn’t said anything bad about me, so I have nothing bad to say about him,” Mayweather said. This was a refreshing departure from past press conferences between Mayweather, Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya.
Mayweather says it’s because Marquez hasn’t said anything bad about him, but I think it may be more of a case of Mayweather having respect for Marquez as a fighter. Mayweather, no doubt, has followed the boxing career of Marquez, seen his two exciting fights against Manny Pacquiao, and his bouts against Marco Antonio Barrera, Joel Casamayor and Juan Diaz.
Marquez has been Mexico’s best boxer for since Barrera and Erik Morales faded away. Although Marquez doesn’t appear to have won over the Mexican boxing fans as well as Morales and Barrera did, unfortunately. One reason for that is because Marquez hasn’t had any huge career defining victories.
His two fights against Manny Pacquiao ended with a draw in the first bout in 2004 and a 12 round split decision loss last year in March. Marquez’s wins over Barrera and Casamayor weren’t as impressive because both of those fighters are in the late stages of their careers and clearly not the same fighters they were earlier.
Mayweather says “There is a blue print to beat Marquez, because he’s been beaten before.” The defeats that Mayweather is referring to is, as mentioned already, a questionable defeat at the hands of Pacquiao, and two equally controversial 12 round losses to Chris John and Freddie Norwood. Perhaps Mayweather hasn’t seen Marquez’s bouts against John and Norwood, and doesn’t know what actually took place in those fights.
If there is a blue print in how to beat Marquez, it’s the one that Pacquiao put together, but I’m not sure if Mayweather has the power to duplicate that. Marquez had problems with the power of Pacquiao and found himself getting knocked down multiple times in their first fight in 2004, and then dropped once again in their rematch four years later in 2008.
Pacquiao hits very hard and his southpaw style made him even more dangerous for Marquez. If Mayweather can punch as hard as Pacquiao or nearly as hard, then I say that Mayweather can follow the blue print that was set in how to beat Marquez.
However, even though Marquez was dropped by Pacquiao four times in their two fights, Pacquiao still in the minds of many boxing fans didn’t really beat Marquez. Pacquiao proved that he could hurt Marquez, knock him down, but not keep him down. Marquez came back in the first fight and out-boxed Pacquiao for the rest of the way.
In the 2nd fight, Marquez was winning the fight going into the 11th and was knocked down by Pacquiao. Marquez came back and appeared to win the 12th. However, it was given to Pacquiao. Even without that 12th, many boxing fans still felt that Marquez should have won the fight over Pacquiao.
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