By Chris Williams: 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (53-6-1, 39 KO’s) will now likely not be facing little known #1 WBO ranked 140 pound contender Cesar Rene Cuenca for the interim WBO light welterweight crown on April 14th, according to fightnews.com. Instead, the former three division world champion Marquez could end up facing a European contender from the top 15 at the New Mexico City Arena, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.

If it’s a European fighter from the WBO’s top 15 then it narrows it down to Ruslan Provodnikov at #7 or Sergey Fedchenko, #5. Neither of them are particularly appealing opponents, but are still arguably a lot more interesting than seeing Marquez destroy Ceunca with his inflated record of wins over 2nd and 3rd tier opposition. It still won’t be anything major for Marquez to beat Provodnikov or Fedchenko. of the European contenders in the light welterweight division, Andriy Kotelnik, the former WBA champion, is easily the best of the bunch. However, he hasn’t fought since getting jobbed in a 12 round decision loss to Devon Alexander in August 2010 and that makes him a rather poor pick to be fighting for an interim title against Marquez.

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News update: It’s reportedly that Marquez’s next opponent will indeed be 30-year-old Fedchenko from Ukraine. This is good because Fedchenko appears to be a little better than Marquez’s previously scheduled opponent Cesar Cuenca. However, it’s also bad because Fedchenko has little power, was previously beaten by Kaizer Mabuza, and struggled badly to beat DeMarcus Corley recently. Fedchenko is what you’d refer to as a hit and run fighter. He likes to jab, and then follow that by backing away quickly so his opponent can’t land. In that respect it keeps him from getting hit, but it also makes his fights painfully boring to watch. Marquez better bring his tracks shoes with him on April 14th because he may need them to catch up to Fedchenko.