By Mark Vester
Juan Manuel Marquez (48-3, 35KOs), the reigning WBC super featherweight champion, is focused on honoring the Mexican people by making rival Manny Pacquiao (45-3, 35KOs) pay on March 15 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. They met in a historic bout on May 8, 2004. That night, Marquez was knocked down three times in the first round and managed to make an amazing comeback over twelve-rounds to pull out a draw on the official scorecards.
Speaking with James Blears of BoxingScene.com/Reuters, Marquez expressed the importance of the fight.
"On a scale of one to 10, the rematch with Manny is a 10-plus. This is such a crucial fight for me, my family, the Mexican people and all my fans everywhere," Marquez said.
Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain, Marquez's manager, revealed to Blears that Freddie Norwood, who beat Marquez in 1999, will be one of the many tough sparring partners used during training camp. Marquez knows Pacquiao is strong, but also sees a lot of techincal flaws that he plans to expose.
"I'm going to use a mixture of aggression, counter-punching lateral movement but above all my intelligence as a boxer to defeat Manny," said Marquez. "Manny is very strong but he's not technical. Manny doesn't like it when you go looking for the fight. He doesn't know how to back up. He's called a terminator of Mexican fighters but with me, no. I'm telling you again that I'm going to demonstrate who's better and I'll win this one. Then I'll be happy to give Manny a rematch but only if he accepts the smaller purse."
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