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Famous boxing brothers: Marquez's


BoztheMadman
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There has hardly been a greater pair of boxing brothers than the Marquez brothers: Juan Manuel and Rafael. While the first one is undoubtedly the greatest, second one too had a very good career, almost great and was for a while perhaps the best bantamweight in the world. He also captured the WBC title at super bantamweight in a war against Israel Vasquez. But Juan Manuel would surpass him as he went on to win multiple world titles at multiple weight classes: featherweight, super featherweight, lightweight and light welterweight. This is the story of Mexico's greatest boxing brothers, the Marquez brothers!

 

None of them debuted early as pros according to Mexican standards. Both were 20 when they had their first fights and interestingly, both lost their first fight. Juan Manuel by a disqualification for a headbutt against Javier Duran and Rafael or Rafa was knocked out by former world champion Victor Rabanales in 8. Rafa however insisted this was just an exhibition bout. That would explain why a debutante was matched against such an experienced former world champion. Juan Manuel or JMM, would not lose again for a long time. In February '97 he won the minor WBO NABO featherweight title by stopping Cedric Mingo by corner retirement after 10 rounds. He defended it 7 times, among others against Agapito Sanchez on points and Alfred Kotey, also on points. After winning 29 straight fights, in September '99 he was given a fight against the WBA champion Freddie Norwood, who was 35-0-1 and one of the best fighters in the division back then, if not the best. Norwood was better in the early going and had Marquez down in second round but the young Mexican came back and won many rounds, also making Norwood touch down for a knockdown in the ninth. In the end however, Norwood got the decision, even though HBO analyst Harold Lederman had Marquez winning 115-111. It was an impressive big fight debut for Marquez. He went back on track, scoring 8 straight wins, before fighting Robbie Peden for the NABF and vacant USBA titles, in a fight that was also billed as the IBF eliminator. Marquez was the better man for most of the fight before it was stopped after round 10 due to excessive bleeding from Peden. On 1 February 2003, Marquez took his first world title by stopping technician Manuel Medina by TKO 7 to win the IBF title. He put Medina down twice and battered him before the doctor stopped the fight. He then had a unification fight in his very first defense against WBA champion Derrick "Smoke" Gainer, a tall southpaw with good skills and a good punch. It was 1 November of that year but Gainer didn't look so motivated to fight Marquez, instead defending himself for most of the fight. He was also cut by an accidental headbutt early on and in the seventh round the fight had to be stopped. Marquez was way ahead on the scorecards and thus won by a technical decision.

 

Now waited the first fight in a great quadrilogy against the Filipino great, Manny Pacquiao, who had reigned as a flyweight and super bantamweight champion earlier. It was 8 May 2004 at the MGM Grand when they commenced. The very fast and aggressive "Pacman" opened best and put Marquez down three times in the very first round but Marquez bounced back and won most of the remaining rounds, however that was not enough and the fight was scored a draw. Marquez then made two more defenses, decisioning the tough Orlando Salido and underrated Victor Polo before getting stripped by the IBF for refusing to fight their ludicruous mandatory Fahprakorb Rakkiatgym, in 2005. He was then also stripped of the WBA "super" title since he no longer was a unified champion. He then travelled to Indonesia to fight against the "regular" WBA champion Chris John, who was 36-0-1 and a very good technical boxer. However, bad and prejudiced refereeing and judging cost Marquez the victory after he got two points deducted for low blows. Even though John won a share of the rounds, he was not active enough to really win but it didn't matter as the judges gave him the victory anyway. After winning the interim WBO title by knocking out Terdsak Jandaeng, on 17 March 2007 Marquez squared off against legend Marco Antonio Barrera for the WBC super featherweight title. The fight was close and Marquez was dropped in round 7 after dominating the round heavily, but Barrera hit him while down and lost a point. In the end, though the fight was very close, the judges were overwhelmingly on Marquez's side. He defended the title successfully by outboxing Rocky Juarez, who had had two very close and hard fights against Barrera. On 15 March next year he had a rematch with Pacquiao and was down once in the third round but had Pacquiao hurt in the second and was better for most of the fight, only to lose by a split decision.

 

Angry about the decision, he wasted no time however and stepped up to another division, lightweight, to fight the Ring magazine champion Joel Casamayor 13 September. Casamayor was a famed technician and a tough guy who had never been stopped in some hard brawls. Marquez became the first man to stop him when he put him down twice in round 11 to end the fight there. He then had a classic brawl against the new big man in the division, Juan "Baby Bull" Diaz, 34-1. It was 28 February 2009 and Diaz opened strongly and landed many punches but Marquez held out before returning the fire and eventually knocking Diaz out in round 9. He then signed to fight Floyd Mayweather in his biggest paying fight so far, on 19 September. Marquez got 3 million for the fight but was outclassed by the naturally bigger and defensively one of the best fighters ever, also getting dropped once before losing on points by a wide margin. Many criticised Mayweather the welterweight for fighting a lightweight. He then defended his lightweight WBA and WBO titles against Diaz and this time decisioned him on 31 July 2010. He made his final defense as a lightweight champion against Aussie slugger and brawler Michael Katsidis; though Katsidis put him down in third round, Marquez in the end broke him down before stopping him in the ninth. He then again found himself on the end of an undeserved decision loss against Pacquiao in November 2011, in a WBO welterweight fight. Out of all HBO experts, 46% had Marquez winning, 42 % had it a draw and only 12 % scored it for Pacquiao. But he would soon get his sweet revenge, as he knocked out Pacman in their fourth fight in round 6, after rising from a knockdown himself. It was a brutal one punch ko which left his rival outstretched on the canvas. Before that, Marquez had captured the WBO interim light welter title by decisioning Sergey Fedchenko. The Pacman fight was at a catchweight above and so was not a title fight.

 

In his last world title fight on 12 October 2013, 40-yearold Marquez tried to become the first Mexican to win a world title in a fifth weight class but failed in a close bout against Timothy Bradley, the WBO welter champion, losing by split decision. The scorecards of the sportswriters were divided. His last fight was against Mike Alvarado, 17 May 2014, and he won by UD. His record is 56 (40)-7-1.

 

The big Marquez brother took up so much room that I can't write so much about Rafa. His first notable victory was against former flyweight and super flyweight champion Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson in 2001, by SD10. In the rematch, Rafa became the first man to stop Johnson by TKO 8. He then beat the IBF champion Tim Austin in 2003, also by TKO 8, to win his first world title. He was a very fast and explosive fighter with very good power but also boxing skills as well. He beat Mauricio Pastrana twice, first by decision and then by TKO 8 and also was the first man to beat Silence Mabuza, both times by TKO. He made 7 defenses as the IBF bantam champion. On 3 March 2007 he had a big fight against the WBC super bantam champion Israel "Magnifico" Vazquez. Vazquez was a feared puncher and one of the best super bantams of his era. However, despite being knocked down in the third round, Marquez proceeded to outbox Vazquez and then broke his nose, which made Vazquez retire on his stool after round seven because he had problems breathing. However, in his first defense against the same man, he suffered his second true knockout loss when he was dropped in the sixth round and then stopped on his feet. They again had a fight on 1 March 2008 and this time Rafa managed to drop Vazquez but in the end lost by split decision in a climactic war. They had one more fight in May 2010 and this time Vazquez was a spent force and was easily stopped in three rounds by the fresher Rafa. In November that year, he tried to win the WBO featherweight title against Juanma Lopez, but had to give up on his stool after 8 rounds. He also lost his last world title fight to WBC super bantam champion Toshiaki Nishioka by UD and retired after getting stopped twice more, by Cristian Mijares and Efrain Esquivias, in 2013. His record is 41 wins (37 by ko) and 9 losses.

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Re: Famous boxing brothers: Marquez's

 

--- Boz, nothing wrong with the ref in the John bout. JMM was given a half dozen warnings for low blows before Pts were taken and he ended DQed, just obstinately DUMB!

 

And I'll swear there was only one KD in the 11th of casa in a tight technical boring bout. The 250lb Fatboy Weeks frantically threw himself atop Casa to prevent his ascension that stopped the fight. Boxrec does support your version, but they are wrong as happens. It was a fraudulent bout as happened with many of BALCO Juan's fights. Maybe we can get the boys to post that fight in the video section to score and verify the ending.

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Re: Famous boxing brothers: Marquez's

 

--- Thanks, a much better fight than I remembered, spoiled by Marquez cheerleading announcers in his home venue. Casa older coming off some stinkers in good form but a bad cut over his eye.

 

 

It was easy for me to score his rds, but less so for Marquez. Going in he needed a debut win at LW as he chased Manny up the divisions. I had casa by 6, Marquez 1 and 3 even. Give even rds to Marquez as the home money fighter, that's 6-4 with the result hinging on the last 2 rds. Casa starts strong, but great combo by Marquez puts him down just as I remembered. He wasn't hurt, but I obviously forgot the ropes KD where weeks threw himself on casa to stop the fight, so I sorta merged the two in my memory. At any rate casa was upset and deserved one more chance.

 

Remember Marquez got 3 chances against Manny and casa fought a good fight and deserved the 2nd chance we never got to see because of the money generated by rematches with manny. At any rate, good show Boz. I rather needed to be refreshed by that fight.

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Re: Famous boxing brothers: Marquez's

 

I am no Marquez fan, lesser still the Balco lab, although there aren't many better counter punchers than JMM. And I have never scored this fight (properly), but I think Weeks saw something in Casa's eyes on the way down that we weren't privvy to and mebbes the outcome was for the best, Bobby.

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Re: Famous boxing brothers: Marquez's

 

--- Boz, nothing wrong with the ref in the John bout. JMM was given a half dozen warnings for low blows before Pts were taken and he ended DQed, just obstinately DUMB!

 

And I'll swear there was only one KD in the 11th of casa in a tight technical boring bout. The 250lb Fatboy Weeks frantically threw himself atop Casa to prevent his ascension that stopped the fight. Boxrec does support your version, but they are wrong as happens. It was a fraudulent bout as happened with many of BALCO Juan's fights. Maybe we can get the boys to post that fight in the video section to score and verify the ending.

No, two. Move on! :haha:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2ouohU36fQ

 

Oh, I hadn't seen Sel already posted the video. And btw LRR, your scoring for this fight...not gonna say atrocious but it's not much better than that. ;-)

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Re: Famous boxing brothers: Marquez's

 

--- 2 cards were a draw with one wide for Marquez. I ain't his homey judges Boz and it was close and well fought.

 

It's not about being homey, but you give Marquez 1 round you say?? I just can't accept that I'm afraid. :ranger: And I'm being nice, someone else would call it much worse. ;-)

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Re: Famous boxing brothers: Marquez's

 

--- Boz, read again. I scored 3 rds 10-10 but gave them to Marquez as the home town judges might see them.

 

Im much closer to the majority draw judges than the one who scored wide for Marquez and I ain't even a hometown judge.

 

Well, I didn't score the fight yet but I know I gave Marquez at least 5 rounds! And it beats me how anyone can not give him at least 4. Casa was only effective in the first 4-5 rounds, after that Marquez started figuring him out. And Casa did little.

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Re: Famous boxing brothers: Marquez's

 

--- Well, maybe you should really score it.

 

casa came on rd 7-9. The 10th was a draw but nacho telling Marquez he's taking too many lefts. 11th starts with casa, but a 5 punch combo puts him down to kickoff the beginning of the end. The commentary was horrid, but thankfully at least still spare compared to today's blabbers.

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Re: Famous boxing brothers: Marquez's

 

--- Well, maybe you should really score it.

 

casa came on rd 7-9. The 10th was a draw but nacho telling Marquez he's taking too many lefts. 11th starts with casa, but a 5 punch combo puts him down to kickoff the beginning of the end. The commentary was horrid, but thankfully at least still spare compared to today's blabbers.

 

Or maybe you should score it again. ;-) :haha:

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