By Francisco Hernandez: On November 27, 2010 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Juan Manuel Marquez and Michael Katsidis waged a relentless battle that is without doubt the fight of the year. Katsidis a fighter with a big heart and great strength exerted constant pressure on Marquez, seeking to overwhelm the Aztec champion, eventually landing a terrific left hook which sent Marquez to the canvas.

Marquez recovered quickly and continued to hit the Greek warrior with pinpoint punching in combinations, eventually catching Katsidis with deadly uppercuts which marked the end for the brave Katsidis. Katsidis couldn’t recover from the vicious uppercuts thrown by Marquez and the fight was stopped at 2:14 of the ninth round.

Contrary to what fairy tales portray, in this world it is falsehood that triumphs over truth, evil men who succeed and good men who are destroyed. In the Boxing world it is no different. Fortunes are paid to frauds, boxers who get handpicked opponents, who they can easily beat up, starving them at catch-weights which render them little less than walking corpses, lifeless punching bags for the Circus of a fight, frauds who have the media and promoters protecting them from fighting a real fight. In the past all you had to do to make big money was fight as a Heavy-Weight, it didn’t matter that you couldn’t tell the difference between a jab and a left hook, as long as you weighed over two hundred pounds you were considered worthy of getting paid millions. Heavy weights made millions of dollars hugging for twelve rounds. Now the fraud is to have catch-weights, where one guy punches the hell out of zombies who can’t even break a sweat because their bodies are so starved and dehydrated.

Juan Manuel Marquez represents the honest boxer who has never been afraid of an honest fight. At the prime of his abilities everyone feared him and ran from him. Emanuel Steward stated that when he trained Naseem Hamed, Steward advised Hamed to stay away from Marquez, period. Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera did the same thing. Marquez was kept out of big fights and big pay days during his prime, because he didn’t have a sugar daddy like Bob Arum to protect and promote him. It is in the later part of his career that Juan Manuel Marquez has finally been able to get the recognition that he always deserved. Marquez has gained his legendary status not through starving and handpicking his opponents, but by fighting dangerous and competitive fighters where the risk was real: Chris John, Rocky Juarez, Manny Pacquiao, Joel Casamayor, Juan Diaz, Floyd Mayweather, Marco Antonio Barrera, Michael Katsidis, and many others. If this world was just and good, fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez would be making the big fortunes and not the circus freaks that use the media to dazzle and fool the ingenuous public.

Juan Manuel (Dynamite) Marquez belongs in the class of those great fighters like Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, Wilfred Benitez, Salvador Sanchez, Marvin Hagler, Alexis Arguello, Julio Cesar Chavez, and many other great fighters of modern times who fought anyone who was a challenge no matter the risk. The legendary lightweight champion Roberto Duran fought the best at Welterweight, Junior Middleweight, Middleweight, Super middleweight, without requesting that they come down to catch-weights, he fought them at their own weights, defeating big men like Iran Barkley. Roberto Duran would never be remembered as a Legend if he had made Iran Barkley come down to Welterweight, where he could have knocked him out easily after making him lose that much weight in muscle and water.

Marquez vs. Katsidis is the fight of the year because you had two strong warriors, neither of which had an unfair edge on the other, Marquez didn’t make Katsidis fight at a catch weight of Super featherweight, he fought him at Katsidis natural weight division, Lightweight. That is why Katsidis was so strong and was able to battle with Marquez the way he did to make this the fight of the year.

Honest hard-core boxing fans are grateful for boxers like Juan Manuel Marquez, who gives us real boxing fights. Some people are speaking about a possible third fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao. It is time for Manny Pacquiao to take some of his own medicine and come down to a catch weight of 135 or 140 to fight Marquez. Pacquiao doesn’t think it is ridiculous to make his opponents come down to a catch weight to fight him, then if he is an honest and good man, he should be willing to come down to a catch weight to fight a smaller Boxer like Marquez. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. But of course Manny will hide behind his sugar daddy Arum and impose his ridiculous conditions; it would not surprise me if they asked for Marquez to fight with one hand tied behind his back.

Hard-core boxing fans salute Marquez and Katsidis for giving us a great and honest Boxing fight of the year.