Juan Manuel Marquez- 48-3-1 (35KOs)
Juan Manuel Marquez, born in Mexico City 08/23/73, is a Mexican professional boxer and the current WBC Super-Featherweight Champion of the World. He has won titles in two-weight classes (126 & 130) and is considered by The Ring magazine as the #3 P4P best fighter in the world. He is the brother of former World Champion Rafael Marquez.
In May 1993 Marquez made his professional debut, losing via DQ against Javier Duran. After this early setback JMM went onto win 29 straight professional bouts and win some minor titles. In September 1999, Marquez fought Freddie Norwood for the WBA Featherweight world title. In a close fight, Norwood outpointed JMM over 12 rounds to defend his title. Juan Manuel Marquez fought some low key fights before Febuary 2003, when he fought Manuel Medina for the IBF Featherweight title. He won via TKO7, winning his first world title. He then fought Derrick Gainer, WBA champion, in unification and beat him easily via 7th round TD.
This lead to the biggest fight of Marquez's career. In May 2004, he and Manny Pacquiao, who had destroyed Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrea, squared off in Las Vegas for the WBA & IBF Featherweight title's. In an entertaining fight, Marquez was knocked down three times in the very first round. However, after surviving round 1 Marquez put on a boxing clinic and went onto outbox Pacquiao for over the distance in a remarkable comeback. The knockdown's made the fight very close, and the fight was scored a draw. Two judges scored it 115-110 either way, very dubious scoring, whereas the other scored it 113-113. Marquez kept his title's. After two more successful defences, Marquez strangely decided to go to Indonesia to fight Chris John for a very small purse. In a decent fight, JMM was deducted two controversial points before losing his title by decision. Many people, including me, felt that JMM won the fight. The final scores were 116-110, 117-111 and 116-112 all in John's favour.
Marquez won the WBO Interim Featherweight title and defended it once before stepping up to Super-Featherweight to fight Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera for the WBC title. In one of the best fights of 2007, Marquez and Barrera traded blow for blow in a very close fight, it was a brilliant display of both boxing and slugging. The final scorecards were ridiculously wide in Marquez's favour, but he did enough to win the fight. The scores were 118-109, 116-111 and 116-111. In November 2007, Marquez defended his WBC belt for the first time against Rocky Juarez. Marquez very impressively outboxed Juarez on his way to a very wide UD. The final scores were 120-108, 117-111 and 118-110.
Marquez's next fight, in March 2008, is the long awaited rematch with Manny Pacquiao. They will square off in Las Vegas for the WBC Super-Featherweight belt. This is a mega-fight, and will most likely be one of the contenders for FOTY 2008.
Updated by LeedsLad (01/12/08)