By Eric Thomas: At yesterday’s conference call, WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO’s) seemed eager to face Juan Diaz (35-3, 17 KO’s) in a rematch on July 31st at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Marquez, 36, spoke about a number of things, such as he’s still drinking his own urine, he doesn’t plan on leaving the lightweight division after this fight, and badly wants a rematch with Manny Pacquiao.
Marquez says “The Mayweather fight didn’t really take anything away. I’ve always said and it’s always been my theory, to be the best you have to fight the best and I’ll never go back on that. I feel very well as far as that fight went.”
Marquez was beaten in his last fight by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a one-sided 12 round decision defeat in September 2009. They were supposed to be fighting at a 144 pound catch weight. Marquez weighed in at 142, but Mayweather weighed in at 146, two pounds over the limit.
Marquez says that Mayweather was even bigger the night of the fight, saying “It was approximately 15 pounds once we got inside the ring.” If this is true, then Marquez, weighing 142, was basically fighting a middleweight version of Mayweather on that night. Mayweather did look awfully big in the ring compared to Marquez on that night. Marquez looked too small and much too slow for Mayweather.
Marquez isn’t overlooking Diaz and is planning on giving him his utmost concentration right now. Marquez isn’t saying what he’ll be doing next. There’s speculation that Golden Boy Promotions, who promotes both Amir Khan and Marquez, is going to push Marquez to move up in weight – at least for this one fight – to take on the 23-year-old Khan for his WBA light welterweight title.
If Marquez gets offered enough money, he’ll probably wind up doing it. His trainer Nacho Beristain doesn’t think Marquez should fight at light welterweight, saying “Juan is of a small physique and for him to compete at those higher weights is very difficult.”
Beristain is right. Marquez is pushing himself as it is to fight at lightweight. He only moved up to lightweight in order to follow after Pacquiao. Marquez has moved up from featherweight, super featherweight and now lightweight trying to get fights with Pacquiao. If not for that, Marquez would still likely be fighting at featherweight and dominating.
Marquez’s big dream is to fight Pacquiao for the third time. Marquez says “Manny Pacquiao, that’s my desire. I want it so bad. I want that third fight with him before my career ends. And maybe another one would be like Erik Morales or a Ricky Hatton, but Manny Pacquiao for sure.”
Of those fighters mentioned, it’s likely that only Morales is a doable fight. Pacquiao is tied up fighting Top Rank fighters for the next year, and there’s a chance that he could face Floyd Mayweather Jr. in between that. Unless Pacquiao sticks around for a couple of more years and completely exhausts all the Top Rank fighters that Bob Arum has in his stable, there’s probably little chance of a third fight between Pacquiao and Marquez.
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