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Mexico City’s Rafael Marquez may be the hardest puncher pound for pound in the game today. The list of opponents that the IBF bantamweight champion has stopped is impressive. Among others, two-time world champion flyweight and super flyweight terror Mark Johnson was knocked out for the only time up to that point in a top level, forty-three fight career. Now Marquez will again be facing another top opponent, Mauricio Pastrana, as he prepares to launch a campaign to unify the highly competitive bantamweight division. Marquez has fought Pastrana before and the Colombian was one of only three Marquez victims who have managed to hear the final bell. Despite his long list of achievements in the last four years, Marquez has a difficult test ahead tonight. In most eyes, Rafael Marquez, 32-3 (29), has proved himself the world’s best bantamweight. After starting off his career in 1995 by getting knocked out in eight rounds by fifty-five fight veteran Victor Rabanales, Marquez went on a tear, winning his next twelve contests, eleven early, fighting everywhere from Mexico City to Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Misfortune again reared its ugly head as Marquez was gunned down in three by Francisco Mateos in 1998. Undaunted, the Mexican got back on the horse just one month later and ran off a string of nine straight stoppage victories before getting knocked out, again in three rounds, by Genaro Garcia, who remains to this day one of the top bantamweight contenders.
Read on for exclusive commentary from Rafael Marquez on this fight, his brother Juan Manuel Marquez and his own future in boxing.
Proving his resiliency once again, one month later Marquez contested for the WBA Fedelatin title in his next fight and stopped Aquiles Guzman in seven to win his first crown. That was December 2000 and Marquez has never looked back. After two quick tune up wins, Marquez began his current incredible run that looks like this; Fourth round stoppage over 20-1 Gerardo Espinoza, two wins against 40-1 Mark Johnson, a sixth round stoppage against 16-4-2 Jorge Otero, an IBF title winning stoppage over 25-0-1 Tim Austin, a unanimous decision against 30-3-1 Mauricio Pastrana, a two round blowout over 27-3-1 Pete Frissina and a monster one punch knockout in the third over 29-2-2 Heriberto Ruiz.
Now comes the rematch against Pastrana, a highly decorated thirty-one year old from Monteria, Colombia now residing in Miami, Florida. In a career that has spanned thirteen years, Pastrana has won the IBF light flyweight title (twice), the interim WBA flyweight crown, the IBO super flyweight belt and the IBA super flyweight and bantamweight straps. The Colombian’s only losses have all been in title fights, coming up short against
Marquez, Felix Machado, Adan Vargas and Jorge Lacierva. Notable victories include Michael Carbajal, Mike Trejo, Heriberto Ruiz, Jose Bonilla, Jose Lopez, Carlos Murillo and Gerson Guerrero. Despite the murderous opposition he’s faced in his career, Pastrana has yet to be stopped.
Marquez is well aware that an experienced former champion like Pastrana will exploit any slip-ups and has prepared accordingly. “I’ve prepared myself for eight weeks for this,” said Marquez through interpreter Jaime Quintana. “I had three sparring partners including Fernando Trejo that sparred with me for ninety-four rounds. I feel excellent, very good physically and mentally. This could be my most difficult fight because Pastrana is such a tough and tenacious opponent. He’s very strong and has many skills. Obviously that makes him a hard and difficult opponent.”
While Marquez has knocked out twenty-nine of the thirty-two fighters he’s beaten, he knows that Pastrana lasted the distance in their first fight a year ago and he isn’t at all concerned at sending a message to future opponents, knowing that his stellar record speaks for itself. “Of course in every fight, you want a knockout but a knockout will come byitself so I’m not going to push it,” said the twenty-nine year old. “Whether I knock him out or not, the other top fighters in my division know that I’m a champion.”
Should Marquez prove to be victorious over Pastrana and remain the IBF champion, he would like to face the other recognized titlists at bantamweight, such as longtime WBC champion Veeraphol Sahaprom, WBO kingpin Rantanchai Sor Vorapin, and interim WBA belt-holder Julio Zarate before moving onto loftier goals. In any case, Marquez has already proven himself to be one of the best Mexican fighters to ever step in a ring at 118-pounds, quite a statement, as there have been so many great bantamweights from the proud Central American country. “I want to unify my division and therefore want to fight anyone who holds a major world title,” said Marquez. “After I unify my weight class I’d like to go up to super bantam and see what I can do there. I’ve always said that it’s important to be a champion but it’s more important to keep being a champion. To me that is the biggest responsibility of any champion. I’m very proud to represent Mexico as a champion and will continue to do so but I’m also proud of my family, which includes my brother, Juan Manuel Marquez, the world featherweight champion. He and I are very lucky to have great fans that support us in every fight and I would just like to thank them and let them know that we won’t ever let them down.”
Thank you to Ricardo Jimenez and Jaime Quintana who assisted in making this article possible.
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Curtis McCormick can be reached at thomaspointrd@aol.com
