Juan Manuel Marquez

Juan Manuel Marquez
Data
Birth Name	Juan Manuel Marquez Méndez
Weight class	Welterweight
nationality	Mexican
birthday	23rd August 1973
place of birth	Mexico city
style	Left delivery
size	1.70 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	64
Victories	56
Knockout victories	40
Defeats	7th
draw	1

Juan Manuel Márquez Méndez (born August 23, 1973 in Mexico City ) is a Mexican professional boxer, former WBA , IBF , and WBO featherweight champion, former WBC super featherweight champion, former WBA, and WBO world champion in Lightweight and former WBO light welterweight champion.

After Erik Morales and Jorge Arce, he is only the third Mexican boxer to win world titles in four weight classes.

Private

Juan Márquez was born in the Mexican capital to a former boxer and a housewife. He has two brothers and five sisters. His brother Rafael Márquez is also world boxing champion. Until 2000 he worked as an accountant. He has been married since 1996 and has two sons and a daughter. He also owns some rental properties and a sports bar in Mexico City.

Boxing career

Marquez says he started boxing at the age of eight and took part in a tournament for the first time when he was 13. He played 36 amateur fights, of which he won 35. After he had to cure for a long time due to a spinal injury, he did not move to the professional camp until 1993 at the age of 19. However, he lost his professional debut on May 29, 1993 in Mexico City due to a headbutt through disqualification in the first round against Javier Durán (record: 1-0).

Up to his first World Cup chance, he won each of his subsequent 29 fights, 22 of them prematurely. In addition to a number of build-up opponents, he also defeated the former WBA world champion Julio Gervacio (30-4), the world championship challenger Freddy Cruz (50-9), Juan Cabrera (32-3), Enrique Jupiter (31-8) and Wilfredo Vargas (23-11), the later WBO world champion Agapito Sánchez (20-5) and the former WBO world champion Alfred Kotey (22-5).

On September 11, 1999, he boxed in Las Vegas against Freddie Norwood (35-0) for the Featherweight World Championship of the WBA, but lost to the title holder unanimously on points. After ten consecutive victories against some strong opponents like Remigio Molina (35-3), ex-WBO world champion Daniel Jiménez (28-8), Reynante Jamili (43-6) and the later IBF world champion Robbie Peden (20-1) he was able to compete against the multiple world champion Manuel Medina (60-12) on February 1, 2003 for the IBF Featherweight Championship . Márquez had his opponent on the ground in rounds 2 and 7, before the referee, after consulting the ring doctor, broke off the fight in the seventh round in favor of Márquez and declared him the winner by tKo. After an early win against Marcos Licona (21-3), he also won the WBA world title early on November 1, 2003 against Derrick Gainer (39-5). The WBA world title was upgraded to the super world title due to its possession of the IBF title.

On May 8, 2004, he boxed for the first time against Manny Pacquiao (38-2). In the exciting duel, Márquez went down three times in the first round, but was able to make the further course of the fight more evenly and repeatedly score points with good counterattacks before the fight ended in a draw after the full twelve rounds. He thus retained his two world titles, which he then defended against Orlando Salido (23-8) and Victor Polo (37-4). In 2005 he was finally stripped of the IBF title, as no promoter was willing to pay the minimum price for his title defense against Fahprakorb Rakkiatgym. Due to the loss of the IBF title, his WBA super world title was also devalued to a regular world title. But also this title he lost on March 4, 2006 by a point defeat to Chris John (36-0), which also contributed two point deductions against Marquez due to low blows.

In August 2006, Márquez then won the WBO interim title . After the reigning title holder Scott Harrison canceled a compulsory defense scheduled for December 2006, the Scot was stripped of the title and Marquez was named WBO world champion.

On March 17, 2007, Márquez won against his compatriot Marco Antonio Barrera on points and thus won the WBC world title in the light weight division. This fight was somewhat overshadowed by the seventh round; in this Barrera beat Marquez to the ground shortly before the end of the round, but the referee did not evaluate this as precipitation and instead gave Barrera a point deduction for looking up. However, the judges were so clear in their judgment that even a rating as precipitation would not have changed the result of the fight.

After successfully defending the title against Rocky Juarez , there was a rematch against Manny Pacquiao on March 15, 2008. The fight went the full distance again, and Marquez fell again. The judges' scores after the twelve rounds were so tight that the rainfall in the third round ultimately decided the fight in Pacquiao's favor; without this advantage, the duel would have ended in a draw again.

After losing to Manny Pacquiao, Márquez switched to lightweight. On September 13, 2008 he competed there against the Cuban Joel Casamayor . After Marquez got two knockdowns in the eleventh round, the fight was prematurely canceled by the referee in favor of Marquez.

He played his next fight on February 28, 2009 against Juan Díaz . Díaz, former title holder of the WBA, WBO and IBF, had lost his title the year before to the American Nate Campbell. However, since Campbell could not keep the weight limit in his first title defense, the title was revoked and declared vacant. Marquez won the belts of the WBA and WBO against Díaz by technical knockout in the ninth round.

Then Marquez went on September 19, 2009 welterweight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. , who returned after a two-year ring break. Marquez went down in the second round and lost the fight clearly on points.

Marquez returned to lightweight and faced again against Juan Díaz. This time he beat Diaz unanimously on points and was able to defend his title again. After beating Díaz, Márquez took on mandatory challenger Michael Katsidis , whom he knocked out in round nine. After the fight, Marquez announced that he would play against Manny Pacquiao for a third time. Márquez lost his title and first rose to super light weight to complete a fight there before he rose again to welterweight for Pacquiao. The fight against Pacquiao took place on November 12, 2011 in Las Vegas and this time it went the full distance. Márquez also lost the third fight on points, but the verdict was highly controversial and the press largely saw Márquez as the winner of the fight.

After the renewed defeat against Pacquiao, Márquez rose again in weight, but did not return to the lightweight, but denied a fight against the Ukrainian Serhiy Fedtschenko in the super-lightweight, which he defeated in a one-sided fight on points. In this fight he won the interim title of the WBO. Since the regular world champion Timothy Bradley rose to welterweight in order to compete against Pacquiao, Márquez was declared world champion on June 27, 2012 and thus won a world title in the fourth weight class.

Finally, on December 8, 2012, Manny Pacquiao met for the fourth time. Márquez knocked Pacquiao down for the first time in the third round and suffered a knockout himself in the fifth round before he succeeded in the sixth round with a right straight of the knockout; Pacquiao was leading on the scoreboard at this point.

On October 12, 2013, he boxed in Las Vegas against Timothy Bradley (30-0) and lost controversially by a split judge's decision (1: 2). In May 2014 he won on points against Mike Alvarado (34-2).

Web links

• Juan Manuel Márquez in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Johnny Tapia	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) February 1, 2003 - 2005	Valdemir Pereira
Derek Gainer	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) November 1, 2003 - 2005	Chris John
Scott Harrison	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) December 6, 2006 - April 1, 2007	Steven Luevano
Marco Antonio Barrera	Super featherweight boxing champion ( WBC ) March 17, 2007 - March 15, 2008	Manny Pacquiao
Nate Campbell	World lightweight boxing champion ( WBA ) since February 28, 2009	-
Nate Campbell	World lightweight boxing champion ( WBO ) since February 28, 2009 - January 26, 2012	Ricky Burns
Timothy Bradley	World Light Welterweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) since June 27, 2012 - October 12, 2013	Timothy Bradley

Individual evidence

1. ^ Judges KO Pacquiao foe , nydailynews.com, November 13, 2011
2. ↑ JM Marquez gets title in 4th weight division ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , fightnews.com, June 27, 2012  
3. ↑ Marquez wins fourth fight against Pacquiao with a spectacular knockout in the 6th round , boxen.de, from December 9, 2012