By Chris Williams: 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (53-6-1, 39 KO’s) badly wants to get a fourth fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao later on this year to show that he can beat the Filipino star after having failed in three previous attempts. Marquez, however, has a fight coming up on April 21st against unbeaten Argentinian Cesar Rene Cuenca (42-0, 1 KO’s) in Mexico City, Mexico.

Marquez must beat Cuenca to keep a sliver a chance of a rematch against Pacquiao alive. Recently, Marquez said that unless he can get a fight against Pacquiao in 2012, then he’d give up the notion of ever fighting him again and would retire. It may be that he’ll have to do just that because Pacquiao has already said that he’d like to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in November if the fight can be made, and his promoter Bob Arum may have some of his other Top Rank stable fighters to put Pacquiao in with. Arum still has unbeaten welterweight contender Mike Jones to throw in with Pacquiao, although that might be a tough fight for Pacquiao due to the six-foot height and long, long arms that Jones has.

Marquez has every advantage you can think of against the 31-year-old Cuenca. Marquez is stronger, faster, throws better combinations, moves better and is a much better defensive fighter. Cuenca is unbeaten but his wins have come against mostly lower level opposition that few boxing outside of Argentina have ever heard of. He’s slow, obviously weak and he moves like he’s got both feet tied together by a long string. He’s not graceful to say the least and the lack of power is going to be a real problem for him against Marquez. The #1 WBO ranking that Cuenca has been given by the World Boxing Organization may end up being a curse for him than a blessing because he’s going to take a real beating against Marquez on April 21st unless he can come up with some badly needed power somewhere.