By Jim Dower: There is quite a lot riding on tonight’s fight between WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (51-5-1, 37 KO’s) and WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis (27-2, 22 KO’s) in their fight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. For starters, the 37-year-old Marquez is counting on winning impressively and using the momentum from that win to drum up public support for a third fight against Filipino star Manny Pacquiao.
A big win for Marquez in this fight will give Marquez a huge surge in popularity among boxing fans and get them to assist him in getting the fight with Pacquiao. As we saw with WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez’s win over Paul Williams last week, a big win works wonders in opening the doors for big named opponents. Of course, it can also have the opposite effect, as Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum now says he’s not interested in matching Pacquiao with Martinez.
Besides the Pacquiao fight, Marquez is also interested in stepping up to the light welterweight division to attempt to win a 4th world title at that weight class. It’s very likely that Marquez could find himself in a future fight against WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, if Khan can get by his next opponent Marcos Maidana on December 11th. Marquez had the option to fight Khan recently but opted instead to stay at lightweight and defend against the 30-year-old Katsidis.
Katsidis is a tough opponent with excellent power, great pressure and good stamina. Marquez is going to have his hands full with this guy, and unless he can reach back and find his best form from a couple of years ago, Marquez could lose tonight. Katsidis has never fought better than he is now, and he’s a very explosive puncher. It’s fair to say that Katsidis is the biggest puncher that Marquez will have fought during his career. Pacquiao was a lot smaller when he fought Marquez in 2008, and didn’t have the size and strength that the lightweight Katsidis has going for him. A loss to Katsidis will wipe out a lot of big fights for Marquez. He’ll have to settle for a lot less should be lose to Katsidis.
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