McCloskey could get shot against Juan Manuel Marquez on July 14th

By Boxing News - 04/17/2012 - Comments

Image: McCloskey could get shot against Juan Manuel Marquez on July 14thBy William Mackay: #8 WBA light welterweight contender Paul McCloskey (23-1, 12 KO’s) has a shot at being picked out as the opponent of interim World Boxing Organization (WBO) light welterweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) if the 32-year-old McCloskey can get by 37-year-old high level journeyman/fringe contender DeMarcus Corley (38-19-1, 22 KO’s) next month in their May 5th fight at the Kings Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

Marquez’s management are reportedly interested in matching the 38-year-old against the southpaw McCloskey on July 14th at the Cowboys’ Stadium in Arlington, Texas, because they want a southpaw for Marquez to get him ready for a possible November rematch against southpaw WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. McCloskey is one of four opponents that are being considered. The others are as follows: Brandon Rios, Mercito Gesta and Mike Alvarado. Those are all the names that have been tossed up by Top Rank Promotions president Bob Arum, who no doubt would like Marquez to fight one of them next. However, only one of those names – Gesta – is a southpaw and that’s what Marquez is really looking for here. In a choice between Gesta and McCloskey, you’d have to figure that Gesta has a style more closely related to Pacquiao because he’s short like Pacquiao with good power and decent hand speed. However, he’s also incredibly flawed and so easy to hit that it might not give Marquez much to be put in with such a novice like him.

McCloskey is the complete opposite of Pacquiao in that he has zero power, no hand speed, fights with his hands down by his sides and mostly fights to not get hit. He’s more like Marquez’s last opponent Sergiy Fedchenko with his defensive fighting style.

Marquez won’t get much from fighting McCloskey other than a workout in having to chase a reluctant defensive fighter around the ring for 12 rounds while the Texas crowd boos nonstop. McCloskey isn’t what you’d call a fan friendly fighter, as he just looks to land pot shots and make his opponents look bad by making them miss. Chasing him around the ring all night long is going to be frustrating to Marquez if he’s looking for a traditional fight. If he thought that the defensive safety first Fedchenko was bad just wait until he gets in the ring with McCloskey. This guy takes the cake when it comes to just looking to survive.

I think the hard hitting southpaw Corley will do more than enough to beat McCloskey next month but I suspect he won’t get the decision. The fight is in Belfast, and we saw Bredis Prescott dominate McCloskey for 12 rounds last September and end up losing the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision. I don’t see anything different here. Corley can probably out-land the feather-fisted McCloskey by an overwhelming margin and still end up losing the fight. One look at McCloskey’s gift decision over Prescott tells me that Corley might need a KO to beat McCloskey. The Irish fans will be cheering McCloskey’s misses as well as the shots he lands, and that could impress the judges enough to ignore McCloskey getting dominated by Corley.

A fight between McCloskey and Marquez is a sick mismatch. McCloskey doesn’t stand a chance and with the fight not being held in Belfast, he won’t be able to win a gift decision in being dominated.



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