By Jim Dower: Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) added a fourth division world champion to his growing collection of titles on Saturday night in easily getting past Ukrainian Sergiy Fedchenko (30-2, 13 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision to win the interim WBO light welterweight title at the New Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico. The final judges’ scores were 119-109, 118-110, and 118-110.

Marquez initially attempted to land shots to the head of Fedchenko, but found Fedchenko’s movement too illusive for him to land with any consistency when going upstairs in the early part of the fight. So Marquez focused on going to the body, and he found a lost of success in hitting Fedchenko in that area. The body shots seemed to take a lot of the energy out of Fedchenko in the 2nd half of the fight. Marquez had Fedchenko looking hurt in the last part of the 10th round, and was pretty much hitting him at will in the last three rounds of the fight. Fedchenko’s face was marked up from all the shots that Marquez landed in the fight.

As expected, this fight was a horrible mismatch but it served it’s purpose by letting Marquez get in a stay busy fight while at the same time picking up the interim World Boxing Organization 140 pound title to make it Marquez’s fourth division world title.

Marquez will now likely face Brandon Rios on July 14th at the Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Texas. Marquez can, of course, say no to the fight with Rios, but then again he might not get that November rematch with WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao if Marquez doesn’t take the Rios fight. There’s no word about the Rios fight being a condition for Marquez to get the Pacquiao fight, but I frankly wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

Bob Arum, Rios’ promoter, wants Marquez to fight him because it’ll give Rios a name win or lose. I think he’ll lose and lose badly, but after his HIGHLY questionable decision over Richard Abril, I just don’t know. If a fighter can’t get a win over Rios even in dominating him the way that Abril did, it might just take a KO for Marquez to get a win over him. In that case, the fight might not be worth it for Marquez to take because the chances are uncertain whether he can get the Pacquiao fight. If the money is fight, Marquez will likely take it. The other option would be for Marquez to fight another one of Arum’s stable fighters Mercito Gesta, an unbeaten lightweight with limited talent and inflated record. That fight would likely be even easier than the Fedchenko fight tonight.