By Miguel Rivera
Former four division world champion Juan Manuel "Dinamita" Marquez (56-7-1, 40KOs) will look to protect himself from being involved in a physical mismatch, if a fight comes together with Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33KOs) of Puerto Rico, who also won four world titles in four weight divisions.
Marquez is focused on doing two more fights, tentatively in May and then in the fall, and then he definitely wants to say goodbye to the ring. He says a Cotto fight could take place as late as November.
Marquez, 42-years-old, has been out of the ring since winning a twelve round unanimous decision over former WBO junior welterweight champion Mike Alvarado at the Forum in Los Angeles. Since then Marquez has been dealing with a knee injury and rehabilitation to properly recover.
Marquez is training and watching how his body responds. If he intends to fight on a date in May, he says the details would have to be finalized on a date in March. He wants to be "100%" for this kind of opportunity.
During his most recent appearance on Golpe a Golpe, Marquez explained what he would require in terms of the weight for a potential Cotto fight.
Marquez has already discussed the idea of the fight with Cotto's legal adviser Gabriel Peñagarícano.
"I spoke to his agent, who is Peñagarícano. We had a conversation where I said yes I would be interested to fight Cotto, but first we want to make a tune-up fight because we know that inactivity is an important point in the career of a fighter," Marquez said.
"If they want to do the fight, it would have to be at welterweight and have a clause where he can not rise above 152,153 pounds the following day. To me that's an important point. I'm not a natural welterweight and that would help me a lot, because there would be little difference in the weight [on the day of the fight]."
"I think the [fight is a] win-win for both fighters. If you win, then you win over a great fighter. And if you lose, then you also lose to a great fighter. It doesn't hurt [your career and legacy]."
Cotto has been out of the ring since last November's twelve round decision loss to Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez. He weighed 155-pounds for the fight.
