By Miguel Rivera
Former four time world champion Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40KOs) has returned to work at the Romanza gym in Mexico, where he begins his training camp without having a confirmed opponent or date.
Marquez will evaluate how his body responds in the coming days to determine if he returns to the ring for a farewell fight or finally hangs up the gloves.
At 42-years-old, Marquez has been out of the ring since May of 2014, when he won a twelve round unanimous decision over Mike Alvarado.
Since the win over Alvarado, several potential return dates have been postponed due to a lingering issue with is knee. At the moment, Marquez is not feeling any pain in the area and believes the problem with the knee has been resolved.
"Now is the time that we start to train and we'll see how the body responds," said Marquez to ESPN Deportes.
Marquez is looking good at the gym and head trainer Nacho Beristain is building his fighter's stamina.
The future Hall of Famer is looking to return on a date in October or November, and he still wants a showdown - under the right terms - with former four division world champion Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico.
Cotto himself has been out of the ring since last November's twelve round decision loss to Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez. He was initially scheduled to return in June, but his team had a lot of trouble securing an adequate opponent.
The big issue with making Marquez-Cotto is the weight. Marquez would like the fight somewhere between 147 to 150. Cotto's trainer Freddie Roach is not sure if his boxer is capable of getting down that low and prefers something a few pounds above 150. Cotto's last fight took place at a catch-weight of 155 and he is likely heading down to junior middleweight when he returns.
