By Ryan Maquiñana
When the percussion from the final bell reached featherweight Roberto Marroquin’s ears, the feeling was no less than numb. After going almost four years without losing, Francisco Leal would officially break the Dallas native’s unblemished streak once the scores were inevitably announced.
With the loss, Marroquin (19-1, 14 KOs) saw his status take a hit among the up-and-comers in the sport. Armed with a new trainer, Top Rank’s once can’t-miss prospect now eyes a move south to the 122-pound division when he encounters trial horse Jose Angel Beranza (33-20-2, 26 KOs) of Mexico City tonight in the latest installment of Top Rank Live from the Softball Country Arena in Denver.
This writer was able to catch the 21-year-old Marroquin before the fight, and if there’s anything I’ve learned about his personality from our conversations over his past few fights, it’s that he’s one the most honest prospects in the sport.
Marroquin’s candor is something that I feel will both endear him to the fans and help him adjust to an upset loss in the same vein as Robert Guerrero, Victor Ortiz, or Nonito Donaire, whose bouts of soul-searching have done wonders for their respective careers in the long run.
ON FIGHTING LEAL:
“I really screwed up knowing he’s a southpaw. Every time I would land a combination, I would square up. That’s when he would come back and hit me with flurries. I came into the ring really confident. I actually told Danny after the second round, ‘I think I’m going to stop this guy.’ As soon as I got that headbutt in the third round, my eye was closed shut by the fourth and fifth rounds. By then, the fight was a different story in the middle rounds. Once I got cut in the forehead with another clash of heads, I was thinking that it wasn’t my night.”
ON BOUNCING BACK FROM THE LOSS:
“Coming out of the ring hearing the decision, I wasn’t really worried about anybody but myself. I was thinking, ‘Shoot, how did this happen?’ I was really disappointed in myself with the way I fought that night. I went back to my room and sat, and I just wanted to be alone. It had been three or four years before I had last lost a fight to Gary Russell [Jr.] in the Olympic Trials. It was a big deal. I didn’t want to take any text messages or anything for a week. It was really bugging me at first. But luckily, I had my family and friends supporting me. They had to slap me in the face and wake me up and bring me back to it. They inspired me to get back in the gym and got me back to working on what I needed to work on. Even [Manny] Pacquiao’s lost a couple fights and it made him better.”
ON REPLACING TRAINER DANNY SMITH WITH PAUL REYES:
“To tell you the truth, I think it’s really up to the fighter. When it comes to changing trainers, it’s tough. I loved working with Danny. I learned a lot from him. He was more about countering, and with Reyes, I notice a little bit of a change. With Danny, I noticed that I was changing into a counterpuncher. I feel a little more comfortable with my combinations now. I feel a little faster trying to outbox guys rather than looking to counter.”
ON WHERE HE WANTS TO SEE IMPROVEMENTS:
“Losing two in a row is obviously not going to be good for my career. I want to show the people that I can become a world champion. It’s just a matter of executing. I’m feeling like 100 percent I’m at my best. What I want out of this fight is to show the people that I’m going back to the same old Roberto Marroquin that knows how to use his speed, combinations, and work the body. I haven’t been going down to the body lately, and the most important thing is using my jab. I’m a tall, lanky featherweight. People say I look like a 135-pound fighter with my height. I need to use my most important weapon, and that’s my jab. I think it will open everything else up.”
ON HIS MOVE DOWN FROM FEATHERWEIGHT TO SUPER BANTAMWEIGHT:
“A lot of people thinking I’m struggling with my weight or that I’m fighting at too low of a weight class, but I’m not. The contract for this fight is 124 [pounds]. Originally, Bruce [Trampler] and Top Rank had everything planned. The plan was to fight Wilfredo Vazquez [Jr.] either this year or next year, but that didn’t work and we both lost our fights in April. April was just a weird month for boxing and upsets. We need to come back with a good win here and get back on track.”
ON COPING WITH THE HIGH ALTITUDE OF DENVER:
“Being part of the U.S. National Team back from ‘05-‘07, I went down to Colorado Springs, so I’m accustomed to the feeling I get in the ring. Hopefully, it won’t bother me, but I just see it as another little test I have to overcome. The less rounds I go in there, the better. If the knockout comes, I’m not afraid to do that.”
ON MATCHING UP WITH BERANZA:
“I’ve seen him fight a couple times. We were actually on the same shows. He fought a Puerto Rican (Jesus Rojas) on the Pacquiao-[Oscar] De La Hoya card in 2008. He upset a Puerto Rican who was undefeated, so no matter what his record says, he’s not a punching bag. He’s a rugged old veteran who knows what he’s doing and complicate things in the ring, but with Reyes’s help and everything, I want to feel the satisfaction of outboxing this guy and use my speed. I don’t even want to be touched. If I can apply pressure and keep him away from me, that’s one thing. If not, I can outbox him and use my speed and lateral movement. It all depends on the first couple rounds. Beranza’s a durable guy, so I predict we’ll have to go all eight rounds for the decision, but a knockout would be the perfect comeback.”
ON HIS FATHER:
“To me, family’s gotten me through everything. It wasn’t really that I was a good fighter, what actually got me to like boxing was my family. We really didn’t have the money to be going to these national tournaments, and my father would make all these sacrifices to get me there. I remember when I won my first national title, I saw my father crying, and it just filled me with a feeling I can’t even explain today. It kind of hurt me to see him after my last fight, but I’m aware that disappointments are going to come. You just have to come back to the gym and work harder. I want to see my dad to have that old feeling again on Saturday.”
ON HIS MOTHER:
“My mom does not like boxing whatsoever, and she’s my biggest critic. I could probably knock a guy out in one second, but she’d find something to criticize me about. The funny thing is that she’s right most of the time. One time in the amateurs my mom ran right up to the ring apron and yelled at me to fight harder. It was embarrassing! Of course, when moms say something, they have to be done. I had to rip this guy’s head off, and I did. I didn’t want to have to answer to her. (Laughing) The same thing happened in the Leal fight. In the third or fourth round, she was sitting ringside, and I started doing bad. She started screaming, ‘Roberto! Put your hands up! Why aren’t you hitting that guy?’ After I lost, I knew she was going to criticize me once I stepped in the truck. But in the end, she’s always been proud of me win or lose. So yeah, my parents have different ways of motivating me, but it’s just different ways of doing something, and my mom and dad are real special to me.”
ON HIS PASSION TOWARD BOXING:
“All my life I wanted to be a baseball player. My first couple years fighting, I was forced to do it. I had to run and make weight, and I would complain. There were days were I was running my three or four miles and in the middle of the run, I would think about walking and cheating, but there’s no shortcuts in boxing. After winning national titles and seeing things go my way, as I said before, seeing my family happy and overcoming these challenges changed all that. The most important thing about boxing is staying focused, dedicating yourself, and try not to cheat yourself. I’ve been going all out in my training because I want to show everyone the old Roberto Marroquin. There’s no hiding once you get in the ring. Everyone’s going to see how hard you pushed yourself by the way you fight.”
Ryan Maquiñana is the boxing correspondent at Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, contact him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rmaq28 or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.
