Marquez Vacates Lightweight title To Fight At Welter

Within the last week the World Boxing Organisation has announced that three weight World Champion and future Hall of Famer Juan Manuel Marquez has decided to vacate their “full” Lightweight title to campaign as a Welterweight, according to a recent statement that was released by the WBO.

Also contained within their statement, Marquez has demanded that he would vacate the Lightweight title on the condition that he would be made the WBO number 1 challenger at Welterweight.

Both requests that Marquez made were accepted by the WBO in their recent board meeting, which could potentially result in a fourth fight with Manny Pacquiao.

The actions of Marquez, who has not defended his WBO Lightweight title since stopping tough Australian brawler Michael Katsidis in nine rounds back in November 2010, could clear the way for Coatbridge’s Ricky Burns, who incidentally outpointed Katsidis, to be potentially upgraded from “interim” World Champion status.

Burns gets a chance to cement his reputation as a world class fighter at Lightweight when he faces Namibia’s former WBA Champion Paulus Moses in March at Glasgow’s Braehead Arena while Marquez’s move to 147 pounds will potentially secure a fourth world title at a different weight, ideally following in the footsteps of his countryman Erik Morales.

Also within this statement, the WBO’s Cruiserweight Champion Marco Huck has been given permission to step up to Heavyweight to fight WBA Champion Alexander Povetkin in Stuttgart next month. However, once that bout is over Huck has 10 days to decide whether to carry on fighting at Heavyweight and therefore relinquish his title or return to Cruiserweight, regardless of the outcome of the Povetkin fight.