Juan Manuel Márquez

Infobox Boxer
name = Juan Manuel Márquez


realname = Juan Manuel Márquez Méndez
nickname = Dinamita
weight = Super featherweight
height = height|ft=5|in=7
nationality = flagicon|Mexico Mexican
birth_date = birth date and age|1973|8|23
birth_place = Mexico City
style = Orthodox
total = 54
wins = 49
KO = 36
losses = 4
draws = 1
no contests = 0

Juan Manuel Márquez Méndez (born August 23, 1973, in Mexico City) is a Mexican professional boxer and the current The Ring lightweight world champion. He has also held the IBF, WBA, and WBO featherweight (126 lb) titles and the WBC super featherweight title.

Personal

Márquez comes from a strong boxing pedigree. His brother, Rafael Márquez, is a former world champion who has won world titles at the bantamweight and super bantamweight divisions.

Career history

Márquez had an amateur record of 35-1 that included two Golden Glove tournament wins. He made his professional debut at age 19 on May 29, 1993 and lost his first bout via disqualification to Javier Duran.

Márquez wouldn't lose again for another six years as he compiled a record of 29-1 that included a win over future champion Agapito Sanchez, and former champions Julio Gervacio and Alfred Kotey. In 1997, Márquez won the NABO featherweight title, which he defended seven times.

First Title Shot

He earned his first shot at a world title on September 11, 1999, when Márquez lost a controversial decision to then-unbeaten champion Freddie Norwood.

On November 20, 1999, Márquez faced Remigio Molina, stopping him in eight rounds. In 2000, he defeated former champion Daniel Jimenez and five fights later, he stopped future champion Robbie Peden in ten rounds for the NABF and USBA featherweight titles.

Featherweight

Márquez received his second shot at a world title on January 2, 2003, when he defeated Manuel Medina and captured the vacant IBF Featherweight title. He then defeated Derrick Gainer later in the year to win the WBA featherweight title.

Pacquiao-Marquez I

In May 2004, Márquez fought Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao in a drawn bout where he was knocked down 3 times in the first round by Pacquiao, but from the second round on, he dictated much of the fight. Unfortunately, he was unable to overcome the early points deficit and the two fought to a draw. [ [http://www.hbo.com/boxing/fighters/marquez_juan/bio.html HBO: Boxing: Fighters: Bio: JUAN MANUEL MARQUEZ ] ] The result was controversial as judge Bert Clements scored the first round as 10-7 for Pacquiao instead of what normally would have been 10-6; [ [http://fightnews.com/pacquiao-marquez_scorecard.gifPacquiao-Marquez I Scorecard] ] this anomaly led the fight to being called a draw instead of a split decision for Pacquiao. In addition, post-fight controversy also surrounded the alleged illegal use of a string inside of a cut over Marquez's right eyelid during the fight. The claim was made by sportswriter, Thomas Hauser, who watched the bout from a television monitor. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3315176&type=story Aftermath of Pacquiao-Marqez II] ] Keith Kitzer, director of the Nevada State Athletics Commission, dismissed those allegations and stated that the string had simply been used in place of Q-tips. [http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=13299] The final scores were 115-110 for Marquez, 115-110 for Pacquiao, and 113-113.

On September 18, 2004, Márquez defeated future champion Orlando Salido. In 2005, Márquez was stripped of his WBA super and IBF titles, for his inability to defend it against various boxers after potential bouts failed to draw a bid. [http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=2135889] In 2006, Márquez attempted to regain a title, coming up short in a controversial decision loss to Indonesian boxer Chris John for the WBA Featherweight championship title. The disputed decision led to the Ring Magazine's removal of Márquez from its pound-for-pound top 10 list.

In late 2006, Márquez captured the WBO Interim Featherweight title defeating Thailand boxer Terdsak Jandaeng, and defending it against Filipino boxer Jimrex Jaca with a nine round knockout in Hidalgo, Texas. Márquez was promoted to world champion status in December 2006 when previous champion Scott Harrison vacated the title, [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/06/sports/EU_SPT_BOX_Harrison_Vacates.php] but vacated the title himself the following year to challenge WBC Super Featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera.

uper Featherweight

On March 17, 2007, Márquez became the WBC Super Featherweight champion by outpointing Barrera in Las Vegas by unanimous decision. [cite web
url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/18/sports/NA-SPT-BOX-Barrera-Marque.php
title=Marquez defeats Barrera for WBC title
publisher=International Herald Tribune
accessdate=2007-03-17 ] Márquez's first defense of his title were to be held on September 15, 2007 against Argentinian boxer Jorge Rodrigo Barrios. However, Barrios withdrew from the bout due to injury, prompting American boxer Rocky Juárez to challenge Márquez for the title in November 3, 2007 in a losing effort.

Pacquiao-Marquez II

It was announced on November 29, 2007 that Márquez would defend his championship title against Manny Pacquiao, whom he fought to a controversial draw in 2004. On March 15, 2008, Juan Manuel Marquez lost his Super Featherweight Championship to Manny Pacquiao via a highly disputed split decision. Compubox scoring had Juan Manuel Marquez landing 42/201 (21%) jabs to Pacquiao's 43/314 (14%) jabs, it also had Marquez scoring 130/310 (42%) power punches to Pacquiao's 114/305 (37%) power punches. [ [http://www.compuboxonline.com/stat_files/MAR-PAC2.html CompuBox - Every Punch Counts ] ] But Marquez suffered a knockdown in the third round by a powerful left from Pacquiao. This proved to be the difference in the decision as the remaining rounds were scored dead even. The fight was controversial with some Filipino boxing analysts saying Marquez should be the winner. [ [http://www.gmanews.tv/story/85048/Boxing-pundits-see-Marquez-as-real-winner GMANews.TV - Boxing pundits see Marquez as 'real winner' ] ] [ [http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=13129 Boxing News : Nonito Donaire Scored The Fight For Marquez ] ] Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy Promotions CEO, offered a $6 million guarantee to Pacquiao for a rematch. Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, said, “I’m not saying they’ll never fight again, but you have to let it bake for a while”. Pacquiao, for his part, said: "I don't think so, this business is over" as he plans to move up to the lightweight division. [ [http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=ki-paqmarq031508&prov=yhoo&type=lgns Arum in the way of Pacquiao-Marquez III? - Boxing - Yahoo! Sports ] ]

Lightweight

Marquez moved up to 135 pounds himself in order to face the linear lightweight title holder Joel Casamayor on the weekend leading up to Mexican Independence Day at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. On September 13, 2008, he defeated Casamayor by stopping him in the 11th round after two knockdowns and captured his sixth world title in three different weight classes. Marquez (49-4-1, 36 KOs) floored Casamayor (36-4-1, 22 KO's ), 37, with a right hand that smashed the Cuban's chin, with timed big blows, until Casamayor went down about 7 seconds left. [ [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_s6M8w3QlpTHqVcE13qlVznVLjAD9369SK00 ap.google.com, Marquez floors Casamayor in big lightweight debut] ] After the win, Ring magazine ranked him second on its pound for pound list and rated him the number one champion in the lightweight division. [http://www.thering-online.com/ringpages/ratings2.html]

References

See also

*List of featherweight boxing champions
*List of super featherweight boxing champions
*Notable boxing families
*Reigning boxing champions
*List of WBC world champions
*List of WBA world champions
*List of IBF world champions
*List of boxing triple champions

External links

* [http://boxing.about.com/od/records/a/jmmarquez.htm Juan Manuel Márquez Fight-by-Fight Career Record]
*
* [http://www.juanmanuelmarquez.com/ Juan Manuel Márquez Fan Site]