Rafael Márquez (boxer)

Rafael Marquez
Data
Birth Name	Rafael Marquez Méndez
Weight class	Semi-feather weight
nationality	Mexican
birthday	March 25, 1975
place of birth	Mexico city
style	Left delivery
size	1.65 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	48
Victories	41
Knockout victories	37
Defeats	7th

Rafael Márquez Méndez (born March 25, 1975 in Mexico City , Mexico ) is a Mexican boxer. He is the younger brother of Juan Manuel Márquez .

Professional career

Márquez turned professional bantamweight in 1995 and boxed in his debut against world class man Victor Rabanales. The former WBC title holder Rabanales was much more experienced with 55 fights completed at this point in time and thus also prevailed with a knockout victory in the eighth round. To what extent this was actually Marquez's first professional fight or whether the match balance is incomplete is difficult to check. In any case, it is very unusual as a debutant to box against the world class and then also over a comparatively long distance of eight laps.

Also in 1998 and 2000 he lost twice prematurely, this time against completely unknown opponents. However, he drew attention to himself with a very high knockout rate for this low weight class. He is a counter-boxer and his most powerful weapon is the right hand punch.

When he took on the highly regarded American southpaw Marc Johnson , balance sheet 40-1, in 2001, he was not in any independent world rankings Top-10 and was considered a clear outsider. But supported by two point deductions from Johnson, he was able to win just on points. In the immediately scheduled rematch he even won by knockout

He qualified for a title fight of the IBF Association on February 15, 2003 against the highly traded and undefeated Tim Austin . Marquez won the fight and thus the title, behind on points, by technical knockout in the eighth round.

Since then he has been IBF World Champion and has successfully defended the title seven times. But although Ring Magazine counts him among the best boxers “ pound for pound ”, he is not a crowd puller, as the opponents in the weight class were considered too weak.

On March 3, 2007, he boxed against his hard-hitting compatriot Israel Vázquez in the semi-featherweight division and won the WBC title in his first fight in this weight class . Although he was knocked to the ground, he was finally able to prevail as Vázquez gave up the fight after the seventh round due to breathing problems due to a broken nose. He gave up his bantamweight title a few days after winning the title. Then a direct rematch against Vázquez was agreed, which he lost five months later by technical knockout in the sixth round. This was followed in March 2008 by a third meeting between Márquez and Vázquez. This fight went over the full distance of twelve rounds and was won by a narrow points win by Vázquez.

Due to the continued interest in this duel, a fourth fight should then be organized, which was delayed due to injuries Vázquez '. Among other things, Vázquez suffered a detachment of the retina that required surgery. So Márquez remained inactive for a long time, in 2009 he only fought a short-round development battle. The fourth encounter with Vázquez finally took place in May 2010 and was won by Márquez by technical knockout in the sixth round.

On November 6, 2010 he boxed against the unbeaten Juan Manuel López for the WBO featherweight world title, but lost to technical knockout in the 8th round.

Web links

• Rafael Márquez in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Tim Austin	Bantamweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) February 15, 2003 - March 16, 2007	Luis Alberto Pérez
Israel Vazquez	Half-featherweight boxing champion ( WBC ) March 3, 2007 - August 4, 2007	Israel Vazquez