Tweet
By Jake Donovan - It may not be wise to send a boy to do a man's job, but these days you can't even send a heavyweight to do the sport's heavy lifting.
Thank goodness for Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez. They may only be super bantamweights, but their fights come with heavyweight implications, often providing satisfactory results – even when not matched against one another.
Fortunately for boxing fans, they are once again matched against one another – for the third time in as many bouts when they square off in their rubber match this weekend (Saturday, Showtime, 9PM ET/PT) in a bout aptly named "The Tiebreaker."
Their first bout came a year ago to the weekend, and just at the right time. The heavyweight division was in worse shape than when Lennox Lewis retired three years prior. Wladimir Klitschko was gearing up for a mandatory title fight against undeserving Ray Austin. Samuel Peter was enduring the politics of the sport, while waiting for Oleg Maskaev to run out of reasons to not sign a contract to fight him. Shannon Briggs had just prolonged his inevitable defeat to Sultan Ibragimov, and Nicolay Valuev's American tour was one and done as he was gearing up for an April fight in Germany against Ruslan Chagaev. [details]
Thank goodness for Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez. They may only be super bantamweights, but their fights come with heavyweight implications, often providing satisfactory results – even when not matched against one another.
Fortunately for boxing fans, they are once again matched against one another – for the third time in as many bouts when they square off in their rubber match this weekend (Saturday, Showtime, 9PM ET/PT) in a bout aptly named "The Tiebreaker."
Their first bout came a year ago to the weekend, and just at the right time. The heavyweight division was in worse shape than when Lennox Lewis retired three years prior. Wladimir Klitschko was gearing up for a mandatory title fight against undeserving Ray Austin. Samuel Peter was enduring the politics of the sport, while waiting for Oleg Maskaev to run out of reasons to not sign a contract to fight him. Shannon Briggs had just prolonged his inevitable defeat to Sultan Ibragimov, and Nicolay Valuev's American tour was one and done as he was gearing up for an April fight in Germany against Ruslan Chagaev. [details]