By Jake Donovan

Four years ago, Juan Manuel Marquez held the dubious distinction of serving as the opening act to the unforgettable first bout between the late Diego “Chico” Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo. Marquez won a dominant decision over Victor Polo that evening, but was destined to be forgotten the moment the opening bell rang to start Corrales-Castillo I.

For the past two years, Marquez participated in fantastic fights with the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao. By year’s end, he was forced to stand on the side and watch younger brother Rafael Marquez grab center stage when it came time for Fight of the Year honors, thanks to his part in one of the greatest trilogies in boxing history with lineal junior featherweight king Israel Vazquez.

After his performance Saturday night, Juan Manuel Marquez now has the stage all to himself.

The legendary Mexican boxerpuncher continues to add to his Hall of Fame credentials, delivering one of the best performances of his career in scoring a ninth round knockout of Juan Diaz for the first defense of his lineal lightweight championship.

The bout headlined a televised doubleheader aired live on HBO from the Toyota Center in Diaz’ hometown of Houston, Texas.

A Fight of the Year contender was promised going in, and both fighters did their damnest to live up to the hype from the opening bell. As expected, Diaz took the fight to Marquez, who remained calm under pressure in gladly accepting the role of counter puncher. What Marquez was forced to accept, however, was a frenetic pace. Both fighters combined for nearly 200 punches thrown in the opening round.

The action didn’t slow one bit in the second, much to the delight of the capacity crowd on hand. Even more to their pleasure was Diaz pinning Marquez to the ropes, landing a left hook in the corner and going on the attack. Marquez was momentarily shook but eventually did what he always does best – regroup, readjust and take the fight to center ring towards the end of the round.

Things threatened to slow down in the third, but Diaz went into perpetual motion mode late in the round, forcing yet another shootout. Marquez fought well moving backwards, outlanding his younger foe for the first time in the fight.

The violent two-way action spilled over into the fourth, drawing plenty of ooh’s and ahh’s as both fighters continued to let their hands go at an incredible rate. Marquez managed to throw more in the round and land the more telling blows.

Diaz came back with a vengeance in the fifth, targeting Marquez’ midsection. Marquez spent much of the round with his back touching the ropes, as Diaz never stopped throwing. By round’s end, Marquez was cut around the right eye, though it didn’t prevent him from digging deep and outworking Diaz by a considerable margin in the sixth.

The instructions from Diaz’ corner heading into the second half of the fight were to not allow the older fighter to ever again outwork him. The younger fighter didn’t quite follow orders in the seventh, but was competitive enough to force Marquez to fight at a much busier than desired pace, with his mouth agape as the round wore on.

Whatever transpired in the minute between rounds seemed to work wonders for Marquez, who came out rejuvenated in the eighth. Repeated left hooks landed to the body, as Diaz struggled to get his offense going while contending with a cut over his right eye. Marquez set traps along the ropes, inviting Diaz in then unloading with combinations. A left hook stunned Diaz late in the round, but Marquez remained poised, landing to the body then sliding backwards to avoid any potential incoming.

Two-way action returned in the ninth, with Diaz resuming his role of the aggressor. It worked well for him at fight’s start, but would ultimately prove to be his downfall. Diaz repeatedly charged forward, but it was Marquez’ combination punching that proved to be the overwhelming difference.

The beginning of the end came when an uppercut froze Diaz in his tracks with about 45 seconds left in the round. Marquez hesitated on a left hook, and instead threw a 1-2 upstairs, followed by another uppercut that led to the bout’s first knockdown.

Diaz took an eight count from referee Rafael Ramos, whose presence was hardly noticed for much of the fight. He would be needed moments later, when Diaz was overwhelmed by a body attack and the mother of all right uppercuts to flatten him. No count was needed, as the fight was waved off the moment his head slammed against the canvas.

The official time was 2:40 of round nine.

Overall, Diaz was the busier fighter, but not by much and certainly not the more effective. Marquez landed more punches and a considerably higher margin, averaging more than 80 punches per round. The 35-year old also landed nearly half of his power punches, landing 190 non-jabs in all.

Despite giving away 10 years in age and now approaching 16 full years as a prize fighter, Marquez never doubted that he’d eventually conquer the younger challenger.

“We came to work, we came to box and throw punches. He’s a fighter that likes to throw a lot of punches, but with head movement we were able to evade that,” said Marquez, who advances to 50-4-1 (37KO). “In the fourth and fifth round, we saw that the punches were takings its toll on his body, and knew the knockout would eventually come.”

It came indeed, marking the first time in 36 professional fights that Diaz ended a fight on his back. He falls to 34-2 (17KO), suffering his second loss in a span of three fights, having lost all of his alphabet hardware to Nate Campbell 51 weeks ago. In that fight, failure to overcome cuts and the sight of his own blood contributed to his downfall.

Déjà vu all over again.

“I got caught with a good punch and got caught,” admits Diaz, who loses for the first time in nine career fights in his Houston hometown, and with Juarez, causing the house fighters to go 0-1-1 on the evening. “Once the blood was in my eye, I couldn’t see the punches coming.”

The win marks his first successful defense of the lineal lightweight crown he won from Joel Casamayor in another great knockout performance last September. Marquez initially moved up in hopes of enticing longtime rival Manny Pacquiao into a third fight, though the Filipino superstar has since moved on to junior welterweight.

While Marquez has no problem making lightweight, he made it clear that he is open to moving up in weight – though for much bigger game.

“I’m going down or staying at weight. I’d move up to fight Floyd Mayweather. Pacquiao’s the best pound-for-pound, but he doesn’t want a (third) fight, so I want to go after Mayweather.”

In the meantime, Marquez can continue to pursue the very best in boxing history with more performances like this.

JOHN-JUAREZ PRODUCES GREAT ACTION, BUT NO WINNER

Featherweight titlist Chris John survived his stateside debut with his belt and undefeated record still intact, but was forced to settle for a draw in his 12-round co-feature with hometown challenger Rocky Juarez.

All three judges scored the bout 114-114.

Juarez was competitive early on, but never active enough to where he satisfied the demands of his trainer Ronnie Shields. The opening two rounds accentuated the contrast in styles – Juarez fighting aggressive, John using every inch of the ring in displaying his boxing skills.

How they were scored would come down to preference, though Juarez was effective to the body early on. That changed in the third round. John fought the first two rounds behind a high, tight guard, but adjusted his stance in the third, dropping his elbows enough to pick off most of Juarez’ shots downstairs.

It wasn’t all defense for the Indonesian, catching the challenger with quick right hands and uppercuts to Juarez’ head. The momentum carried over into the middle rounds, with John outworking Juarez and repeatedly beating him to the punch. Juarez had his moments, mostly with straight right hands, but far too infrequent to steal any rounds, plus was forced to contend with a deep cut over his left eye, caused by an overhand right in the fifth round.

Seemingly falling behind, Juarez rediscovered his groove in the eighth round and for the remainder of the fight. With each passing round, John had an increasingly difficult time fending off the pesky hometown favorite. By round nine, chants of “Rocky!” once again filled the Toyota Center, trying to will their kid to victory.

Sensing the fight was slipping away, John picked up the pace and regained control of the fight in the tenth. Given his dominance in the earlier rounds, it seemed that winning the round would’ve been enough to secure a victory. Not the case in Houston, where its officials never seem to find any wrong in Juarez.

Believing the fight was on the table in the championship rounds, Juarez dug deep. John was still keeping it to boxing, but Juarez was far more effective in cutting off the ring than at any other point in the fight. Body shots were the key for the hometown kid, along with his left hook, now landing with regularity.

Juarez came out like a raging bull in the final round, though John was interested in far more than playing matador defense. Both fighters stood their ground and traded non-stop in a thrilling close to an action-packed featherweight fight.

The late surge was too little too late in terms of Juarez changing his bridesmaid status, but enough to secure a draw, sweeping the championship rounds on all three scorecards. But in terms of title challenges, this one goes the same way as did his efforts against Marco Antonio Barrera (twice) and Juan Manuel Marquez – falling short against the very best of his division.

With the draw, Juarez’ record moves to 28-4-1 (20KO). It was thought that this fight would be the last ever title shot for the 2000 US Olympic silver medalist, though the close nature of the fight could be cause enough for a rematch.

John seemed open to it and any other fight against the division’s best, though firmly believing he did enough to win on points. Nevertheless, it’s the 10th successful defense of a title he won five years ago on the road in Japan. His record now stands at 42-0-2 (22KO).

The show was presented by Golden Boy Promotions.

Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.