Tyson Marquez Celebrates One Year, Eyes Viloria Clash

By Rafael Soto

On Monday, Hernan "Tyson" Marquez (33-2, 25KOs) celebrated his one year championship mark. Last year, on April 2nd, Marquez traveled to Panama to challenge then WBA flyweight champion Luis "Nica" Concecpion. Marquez was coming off a year where he suffered back to back defeats and most saw him as a big underdog against Concepcion.

However, Marquez sucked it up and produced a "Fight of The Year" performance by getting up from the canvas to drop Concepcion and finally stop him in the eleventh round of action.

Marquez has returned to the ring three times since winning the title, and retained the championship twice - and two of those wins were rematch triumphs over Concepcion and Richie Mepranum. Marquez recently won the "Fighter of the Year" award from the WBA.

"We are proud and committed to being the world champion. We want even more interesting fights this year. We are getting ready to start preparing for our next fight. I want to go down in history as a great world champion," Marquez said.

Marquez, 23, has short-list of targets - and at the top of that list is WBO champion Brian Viloria (30-3, 17KOs). Marquez will be watching Viloria's next defense, against Omar Nino on May 12th, with great interest.