By Jake Donovan

The Marquez name has appeared everywhere you look these days.

It’s in the headline of at least one article on every boxing site every day this week. Press releases flood the inboxes of boxing writers around the world regarding every move Marquez makes during this week’s bi-continental press tour.

All praise is due to those involves for getting boxing fans to utter Marquez’ name this week.

Only they have everyone talking about the wrong one.

Somewhere buried deep beneath the hype surrounding “Number One/Numero Uno” marks the return of one of the sport’s greatest action heroes. Former two-division champion Rafael Marquez reacquaints himself with a boxing ring for the first time in more than 14 months this Saturday when he faces Jose Francisco Mendoza in Monterey, Mexico.

When we last left off in Marquez’ career, he was seen on the losing end of a razor thin decision loss against Israel Vazquez. The bout capped one of the greatest trilogies in boxing history, with the rubber match serving as the best of the rivalry, as well as the very best of 2008.

It was a fight in which Marquez was seconds away from earning at least a draw before suffering an untimely official knockdown to suffer his second straight setback against a foe whose face was the only one he’d seen in the opposite corner in the span of 52 weeks.

In fact, it’s been three years since Marquez last fought an opponent he wouldn’t have to see again in the ring. The three-pack against Vazquez followed a pair of stoppage wins over tough South African contender Silence Mabuza 2005.

On Saturday, Marquez (37-5, 33KO) begins a new chapter in his already fantastic career, though one in which he seeks his first win in more than two years.

Unfortunately for boxing fans, the revolution will not be televised – at least not in the states.

On the surface, Marquez’ glorified tune-up disguised as a title eliminator against Jose Francisco Mendoza (21-2-2, 17KO) doesn’t necessarily warrant a televised date on its own. Mendoza is your garden variety Colombian banger, racking up wins and knockouts at home but falls short whenever he takes to the road. His lone stateside televised appearance resulted in a sixth round stoppage against Eduardo Escobedo on Telefutura nearly two years ago.

However, there have been far worse opponents than Mendoza in recent memory to occupy the B-side of a telecast. Furthermore, the co-feature battle serves a greater purpose than just returning Marquez to the win column; it precedes a slam-dunk of a main event, when Jhonny Gonzalez throws down with Toshiaki Nishioka in a super bantamweight title fight.

The significance of the card is that Marquez-Mendoza serves as a title eliminator to challenge the winner of the aforementioned main event. Thinking like a North American television producer for a second, the best case scenario for fans on this side of the world is that Marquez and Gonzalez both win, thus setting up an inevitable collision course perhaps later this year.

From there, the winner perhaps meets Israel Vazquez once the super bantamweight king is medically cleared to return to the ring. Vazquez-Marquez IV. Vazquez-Gonzalez II. Must see TV no matter how you slice and dice – but not one that should be served raw.

If not television, then the younger Marquez deserves at least a little bit of shine in print. Two years in a row, his name has been listed on a Fight of the Year plaque. This comes after a long stay atop the bantamweight division and high on many experts’ pound-for-pound lists.

Surely he deserves better than to be buried under his brother’s shadow, especially when the talk for the longest time was that Rafael was the better of the two.

Such talks started up then moment he and Juan Manuel made boxing history in February 2003, when they became the first boxing brothers tandem to win major alphabet titles in the same month. Older brother Juan Manuel set the tone at the start of the year’s shortest month, stopping Manuel Medina in seven rounds. Two weeks later, Rafael would need one more round and to rally from behind on the scorecards to knock out previously unbeaten Tim Austin to rule the bantamweight roost.

For younger brother Raffy, it was a win that confirmed the greatness suggested a year after scoring the second of two wins against Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson. Eight more wins would follow the Austin knockout, compiling a 16-fight win streak capped by a 7th round stoppage of Israel Vazquez for the lineal super bantamweight crown and accolades as one of the sport’s very best fighters in the world.

Two weeks later, the sibling rivalry was renewed. Juan Manuel regained the respect of the boxing world with a dominant, albeit off-the-canvas, points win over Marco Antonio Barrera to match his brother’s feat of winning titles in two separate weight classes.

It was the last time Rafael would lead the race or compete on even terms with big brother, having since suffered two straight losses to Vazquez, though both rating as the very best fights of 2007 and 2008 respectively help cushion the blow.

What hasn’t helped his case is the fact that Juan Manuel has continued to impress in every outing since the win over Barrera. He’s 3-1 over that stretch, with the lone loss coming via narrow and disputable fashion in his fantastic rematch with Manny Pacquiao. Their return go came two weeks after Rafael’s unforgettable rubber match with Vazquez, the last time younger brother would overshadow his elder sibling.

Juan Manuel has since served as the talk of the town. A dominant performance en route to a late round stoppage of Joel Casamayor netted the Mexican veteran the lineal lightweight crown, giving him a world title in his third weight class. Then came his back-and-forth thriller with Juan Diaz earlier this year, in which Marquez was fought on even terms early on before digging deep to eventually flatten the young scholar 10 years his junior.

Meanwhile, Rafael went idle, though the downtime finally comes to an end this weekend.

News of his returning to the ring was bound to fly under the radar, as it takes place against a non-descript opponent in Mexico and off of American airwaves. Adding gasoline to the fire was the news of Juan Manuel entering unchartered waters when he moves up to welterweight (or a catchweight of 144 lb, depending on which version of the truth is to believed) for his July superfight with a returning Floyd Mayweather Jr.

As the July 18 draws nearer, Juan Manuel Marquez deserves to be the talk of the town. He’s taking all of the risk in the fight, for which he earns the biggest payday of his legendary career and potentially puts himself in position for an even more lucrative third fight with Pacquiao in what would easily serve as the biggest fight the sport has to offer.

Until then, he’s still a man in training for his next fight. There’s no reason why the Marquez name can’t continue to live in this week’s headlines -  as long as it shows "Rafael" in front of the surname.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .