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Finally after years of mismanagement and miscalculations, Juan Manuel Marquez is going to get the opportunity to fight a superstar in a super fight. Juan Manuel has never been very lucky. He was the WBO’s number one ranked challenger for a two year period in the late 90’s while Prince Naseem Hamed was champion. You know how the organizations are, the WBO loved Hamed and the publicity and income that his fights generated and kept granting the Prince extension after extension. They even declared Hamed a so-called “Super Champion”, which game the charismatic puncher even more lee-way to legally side-step his mandatory defense against Marquez.
After all the waiting, bickering and negotiating Marquez realized that Hamed would never step in the ring with him and in September of 1999 fought undefeated southpaw Feddie Norwood for the WBA 126-pound title in a boring scrap that in all honesty could have gone either way.
After ten wins and three & a half years later, Marquez won his first title, the vacant IBF 126-pound title with a dominating seventh round knock out of Manuel Medina in February of 2003. Later that year partially unified when he practically chased Derrick Gainer out of the ring. Then his next big break came in May of 2004 when he fought Manny Pacquiao on HBO.
After being dropped three times and almost knocked out in the first, he battled his way back on at least even terms through the rest of the fight and salvaged a legitimate draw. After the bout Top Rank offered Marquez $750,000 for a Pacquiao rematch, but his manager, Nacho Beristein refused the offer. Erik Morales’s people stepped in and took the fight with Pac-Man and Marquez ended up being stripped of his title for failing to defend against the WBA interim champ Chris John. [details]
After all the waiting, bickering and negotiating Marquez realized that Hamed would never step in the ring with him and in September of 1999 fought undefeated southpaw Feddie Norwood for the WBA 126-pound title in a boring scrap that in all honesty could have gone either way.
After ten wins and three & a half years later, Marquez won his first title, the vacant IBF 126-pound title with a dominating seventh round knock out of Manuel Medina in February of 2003. Later that year partially unified when he practically chased Derrick Gainer out of the ring. Then his next big break came in May of 2004 when he fought Manny Pacquiao on HBO.
After being dropped three times and almost knocked out in the first, he battled his way back on at least even terms through the rest of the fight and salvaged a legitimate draw. After the bout Top Rank offered Marquez $750,000 for a Pacquiao rematch, but his manager, Nacho Beristein refused the offer. Erik Morales’s people stepped in and took the fight with Pac-Man and Marquez ended up being stripped of his title for failing to defend against the WBA interim champ Chris John. [details]