By Chris Williams: The fight between WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (29-0, 26 KO’s) and Rafael Marquez (39-5, 35 KO’s) on November 6th is one that appears to be huge mismatch. Lopez, 27, is bigger, younger, stronger, faster and the more skilled fighter.

While I think Marquez was a really good fighter three or four years ago, he’s been worn down with his three rough fights with Israel Vazquez and what has emerged from those fights isn’t the same Marquez that went into them.

Now, Marquez is older and 35, slower with more scar tissue around his eyes. And he’s facing a bigger fighter with power just as good, if not better, than Vazquez but with more size and better defensive ability. I don’t know how Marquez can win this fight. If Lopez and Marquez were both robots, Lopez would be the far superior next generation with all the defects on the original product taken out.

Marquez has had some really exciting fights in his career, but even in his prime he was taking lots of punishment against fighters like Tim Austin and Mark Johnson. He never was someone that really dominated his opposition the way that Lopez has done.

Marquez has gotten the job done with his ability to take punishment and then come back with his power punishing shots. However, Marquez’s best weight was at bantamweight and he’s now facing a big featherweight in the 5’7″ Lopez. This is the wrong fight and the wrong time for Marquez.

Maybe if they had fought earlier in his career, Marquez would have a slight chance of winning. I doubt he would, because Lopez is so superior in every way, but Marquez would at least be able to make interesting years ago.

But now, with Marquez having fought little since 2008, he’s not ready for this kind of fight at this point in his career. The kinds of fighters that Marquez should be fighting now are guys like Erik Morales.

I think that would be a good old timers fight, and I can see Marquez easily winning, but I think Marquez’s time has past. There’s no champions I can see him beating at this point in his career. He needs to hang up his gloves and retire to save himself from taking needless punishment. Lopez is going to wipe him out with ease. It’s not even going to be a fight.