By Rey Danseco
The younger, taller and maybe faster, Jimrex Jaca has gained the respect of WBO interim featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez’s trainer-manager Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain.
Beristain admitted that his ward will face a first-class opponent who has tricky style that difficult to break and will have his fists full.
Beristain revealed his observation after studying Jaca’s videos of previous fights, including the seventh round technical decision victory over Mexican Hector Javier Marquez on July 2 at the Araneta Coliseum under the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar Larios confrontation.
Jaca and Marquez are slated to fight for the Mexican’s newly captured WBO title in the main event of Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions installation on October 21 at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.
The card also included two other title fights to complete the triple header and one of the non-title fights features former World Boxing Council (WBC) super flyweight champion Gerry Penalosa against yet to determine foe.
Considered as one of the best trainers in professional boxing today, Beristain admitted that the southpaw from Sibulan in Negros Oriental is quick and has good boxing skills that will give Marquez a problem.
Jaca also has a two-inch height advantage being 5-foot-7. Nevertheless, Beristain claimed Marquez can adjust contain whatever Jaca could bring in the scheduled 12-round fight.
The fight will be Marquez’s fifth appearance since he figured in a draw with Manny Pacquiao after one of the judges, American Burt Clements, made a mistake of giving his score in the first round of the scheduled 12-round rumble on May 8, 2004 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Marquez had picked himself up from three knockdowns in the first round, a situation that must be scored 10-6 in favor of Pacquiao, but Clements erroneously had it 10-7 and finally had his final tally read 113-113 draw. The two other judges split their favors with identical 115-113 for Pacquiao and Marquez.
Marquez retained his featherweight titles under the World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation.
IBF title was stripped to Marquez, who then lost the WBA throne in against Chris John on March 4 in Indonesia. Marquez has regain his status after he beat Thailand’s Terdsak Jandaeng in round 7 to win the WBO interim 126-lb diadem in his last fight in Stateline, Nevada on August 5.
Marquez has a 3-1 (1 KO) record after meeting Pacquiao and has overall 45-3-1 win-loss-draw records with 34 knockouts.
Jaca is a former two-division RP champion at super bantam and super featherweight and also once became the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation super featherweight champion. He sports a menacing 27-2-1 record with 12 KOs.
