By Gav Duthie: Last Saturday night we witnessed another master class display of ring generalship and boxing IQ from the ageless Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez 56-7-1 (40). His 12 round unanimous decision win over Mike Alvarado 34-3 (23) was flawless bar a knockdown in the 9th round as he was going in for the kill himself. Juan has mentioned retirement several times over the last year or so. He has an estimated net worth of $12 million dollars and being a qualified accountant he is likely to be quite sensible with his finances.
Marquez told us on Saturday he would consult his family (the wife probably) before making any decisions on his future. If he does decide to carry on who does he fight next and if he retires how good was he?
Current Legacy
Mexico has produced some of the greatest boxers of all time and Marquez is one of their most successful exports. For me he is already ahead of his main rivals of this era Erik ‘El Terrible’ Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera. Of Marquez’s 7 losses, 5 of those are highly controversial. He lost the first fight of his career by 1st round DQ and his decision defeats to Freddie Norwood, Manny Pacquiao x2 and Chris John were disputable. The greatest Mexican fighters of all time is often a popular topic of conversation and I feel that he currently sits around 3rd behind Julio Cesar Chavez and Salvador Sanchez. This puts him ahead of the likes of Ricardo Lopez, Ruben Olivares, Carlos Zarate and Oscar De La Hoya in my opinion. Of course opinions on this are extremely subjective.
What is not in dispute is that Juan Manuel Marquez is one of only three Mexicans to win world titles in 4 different weight classes. This is an achievement he shares with Erik Morales and Jorge Arce.
(Marquez 4 weight world titles)
Manuel Medina 67-16-1 (31) IBF featherweight title W TKO 7
Marco Antonio Barrera 67-7 (44) WBC super featherweight title W SD 12
Juan Diaz 39-4 (19) WBO lightweight title W TKO 9
Serhiy Fedchenko 33-3 (14) WBO light welterweight W UD 12
(elevated from interim champion)
One of Marquez burning ambitions is to be the first Mexican to achieve a world title at a fifth weight class before he retires. Juan Manuel Marquez skills at the age of 40 is humbled only by Bernard Hopkins. Although there are boxers older than 40 it is extremely uncommon for fighters in his weight class to be successful past mid-30s. Fellow Mexican legends Morales and Barrera are actually younger than Marquez but were past their prime years ago.
What are Marquez options for achieving his goal?
In short he needs to win a world title at welterweight. He has had two failed attempts so far. One in his third fight with Pacquiao and his recent fight with Tim Bradley. It’s fair to say that Marquez is far from a genuine welterweight. He tipped the scales at 141 and three quarters on Saturday v Alvarado and the most he has ever weighed for a fight is 144 and a half against Tim Bradley. Even when he knocked out Pacquiao and the media were talking about how muscular he was, he was only 143 at the weigh in there. Actual Fighting weight is often different but Marquez is always giving up a few pounds to his opponent at welterweight. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has two of the four titles at 147 and there is no chance of a rematch there.
This leaves:
Manny Pacquiao V 56-5-2 (38) WBO Welterweight champion
(Top Rank)
For me apart from Marquez looking for a title I don’t think he needs this fight. After 4 bouts it’s true that he is 1-2-1 but most feel he should at least have one of those first three decisions and in my opinion his knockout victory closed the book on their rivalry from Marquez point of view. It’s an easier fight to make because both are promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank. Being that Arum has alienated Golden Boy Promotions it makes other opportunities much more limited.
Shawn Porter 24-0-1 (15) IBF Welterweight Champion
(Al Haymon)
Porter is the other champion at 147 but a less realistic opportunity for Marquez. He is managed by Al Haymon, often associated with Golden Boy, and doesn’t deal with Arum much. The fact that Gary Russell Jnr (Haymon) has signed to fight Vasyl Lomachenko (Arum) gives us slight cause for optimism that they can negotiate. If mandatory challenger Kell Brook can defeat Porter in the summer this may also be an option with him promoted by Matchroom.
I still think that Juan’s most natural size is light welterweight and if he fancies another big payday there are some mouthwatering fights here that appeal to me more than a fifth encounter with Pacquiao.
Ruslan Provodnikov 23-2 (16)
(Top Rank)
Mike Alvarado has fought both Marquez and Provodnikov and he reckons the Russian’s pressure would be too much for the Mexican. This would be a fantastic fight and with both fighters promoted by Arum this is a possibility.
The remaining 3 are all promoted by Goldenboy promotions so unless anything drastic happens these are unlikely. It astounds me that Bob Arum still has such a strong portfolio of fighters despite the fact that his boxers are extremely limited in their opportunities to fight the best opponents.
Danny Garcia 28-0 (16)
(Golden Boy)
After his poor performance against Mauricio Herrera Danny Garcia has indicated he intends to move up to welterweight. As a result it is more likely that he would be chasing the likes of Shawn Porter, Marcos Maidana, Floyd Mayweather or even a rematch with Amir Khan.
Adrien Broner 28-1 (22)
(Golden Boy)
It seems that Broner will settle at 140lbs and is likely to fight for a title in his next contest. Marquez is such an accurate fighter and Broner isn’t exactly hard to hit. This would be a great fight but again the likelihood is small.
Lucas Matthyse 35-3 (33)
(Golden Boy)
As above this fight wouldn’t be for a title at present but it would be an amazing spectacle. Marquez counterpunching skills would be tested to the max. Being that Matthysse has already destroyed IBF champion Lamont Peterson, lost to WBC, WBA champion Danny Garcia he may be tempted to move up to welterweight as a fight with Provodnikov seems far off.
Or Retire
Marquez can’t go on forever. He has a young family, a good head on his shoulders and money in the bank. He needs to decide if a fifth fight with Pacquiao would do anything to improve his legacy and not just his bank balance. It would be well deserved if he was to be the first five weight Mexican champion but I think if he does decide to have one more go and loses this would definitely have a negative effect on his legacy. Personally I would like to see him fight Provodnikov but whether or not he decides to fight on he is already a Mexican and boxing legend. Good luck Marquez whatever you decide.
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