Marquez to fight Gesta or Cuenca on July 21st or 28th in Mexico

By Boxing News - 05/22/2012 - Comments

Image: Marquez to fight Gesta or Cuenca on July 21st or 28th in MexicoBy Dan Ambrose: According to the latest boxing news, WBO light welterweight interim champion Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) will be fighting on either July 21st or the 28th against either Mercito Gesta (25-0-1, 13 KO’s) or Cesar Cuenca (42-0, 1 KO’s) in Mexico.

There had been a previous report by Dan Rafael of ESPN that the 38-year-old Marquez was planning on taking the summer off, but Marquez’s people are now saying that’s not the case. He plans on fighting in Mexico in late July.

Marquez had previously been penciled in to fight on July 14th at the Cowboys stadium in a pay-per-view fight, but that seems to be off the table for some reason. Erik Morales was an opponent mentioned as who Marquez would have been facing. However, Marquez wasn’t interested in taking the Morales fight because he wanted to face a southpaw opponent to get him ready for a 4th fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in late 2012.

The Morales fight would definitely help Marquez sell in a PPV bout, because a fight against Gesta or the little known Cuenca likely won’t interest casual fans because neither fighter is well known outside of the hardcore boxing fans.

Marquez has his mind made up that he wants to fight a southpaw to get him ready for Pacquiao. Marquez did this in the past when he took on and destroyed southpaw Likar Ramos by a 1st round knockout in July of last year to get ready for a fight against Pacquiao in November. At best, Ramos was only slightly helpful because he folded immediately in the 1st round. The only positive that Marquez got out of fighting Ramos was the months that he spent training with southpaws to get ready for the fight. The actual fight was useless in preparing Marquez for Pacquiao.

The same will likely apply for Marquez if he faces Gesta or Cuenca. Neither fighter is anything like Pacquiao other than them being southpaws. Cuenca, 31, from Argentina, is painfully slow of hand and foot, and has zero power.

I can’t think of a worse fighter to get Marquez ready for Pacquiao than Cuena. Marquez might as well be facing a fighter with hand speed who fights out of the orthodox stance because that fighter would likely get him better prepared to fight Pacquiao than Cuenca.

Gesta isn’t even a welterweight, he fights at lightweight, and he’s a lot slower than Pacquiao. True, Gesta is a southpaw but he’s got none of Pacquiao’s abilities and it’s another wasted fight for Marquez. Gesta has only fought 2nd and 3rd tier opponents his entire career, which makes him useless in preparing for Pacquiao.



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