By Chris Williams: Former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs) will be back in the ring in early 2015, according to Steve Kim.
Marquez, 41, doesn’t have an opponent picked out as of yet, but he’s made no secret of the fact that he’d like to fight for a world title against one of the welterweight champions. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum would very much like for #1 WBO Marquez to fight his money fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in a 5th fight between them.
Pacquiao’s pay-per-view numbers have been tanking for the past two years, so if Arum could get Marquez to give the aging Filipino star a hand, he might be able to get his pay-per-view numbers back up to the 1 million buy mark if only for that fight.
”Bob Arum says Juan Manuel Marquez will return to the ring in the first quarter of 2015, Fernando Beltran met with Top Rank today #Boxing,” said Steven Kim on his twitter.
Marquez wouldn’t be coming back for another fight unless he has an interesting opponent. He beat Mike Alvarado by a 12 round unanimous decision last May in a stay busy fight.
Marquez would likely be more than happy to face IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook for his IBF strap. But it’s not likely that Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn would say yes to a fight Brook-Marquez fight because he seems to be holding out for a Brook vs. Amir Khan fight. Until that fight is made, we’re probably not going to be seeing Brook in with anyone that has a chance of unseating him.
The only other options for Marquez are the likes of Brandon Rios or Tim Bradley. It’s not likely that Marquez would waste his time with Rios, because he’s looked poor ever since he was beaten by Alvarado. There would be no gain in Marquez fighting Rios, even though Arum would likely jump at the chance of making that fight.
Marquez probably won’t waste his time fighting Pacquiao again because he’s already arguably beaten hm 4 times already, and the last thing he needs is to face him a 5th time and be put in the position where he loses another controversial decision to him.
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