LAS VEGAS -- Give Juan Manuel Marquez an opponent who stands within punching range with a willingness to exchange and he wins almost every fight easily -- but does anyone really expect Floyd Mayweather to make such a mistake?
I have seen Marquez fight live twice, both in championship fights, once here, once in Grand Rapids.
They might have been the worst two title bouts I've ever seen, due to displeasing styles initiated entirely by the opponents, involving diametrically opposite tactics, and both utterly unsolved by Marquez, who won one and lost one.
Marquez's featherweight title fights against Freddie Norwood and Derrick Gainer both happened in semi-mains on Mayweather-headlined cards, and if they fairly symbolized how all his bouts looked, undercards would be exactly where he would have stayed.
Fortunately, that isn't the case.
Marquez's two battles with pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao, who assumed that throne upon Mayweather's leave of absence last year, probably define his career as positively as any fight on his record, even though he won neither.
His strategic adjustment that allowed him to go into Juan Diaz's hometown of Houston and score a late-rounds lightweight title stoppage in a close fight earlier this year was one of Marquez's most meaningful victories.
But in a pair of fights in Mayweather's hometowns -- one each in his real hometown of Grand Rapids and his adopted one of Las Vegas -- Marquez was involved in snoozers which left everyone wondering when those charades would end.
They provided Exhibits A and B as to why Mayweather has no business losing to him, even after a 21 1/2-month layoff.
The Norwood fight happened almost exactly a decade ago, Sept. 11, 1999, in a ballroom at Mandalay Bay. Mayweather had been world champion less than a year and would save the show that night with a pair of quick knockdowns against Carlos Gerena, who retired on his stool before the eighth round.
Norwood-Marquez devolved quickly into a clutchfest. The punchstat guys hardly recorded a scoring jab or power punch, although the fight would have set a record for deodorant checks. When the fight ended, the principals had chest hairs in their noses and nose hairs on their chests. Norwood initiated a clinch any time he got close enough. The fighters hugged like long-lost lovers for 12 rounds. Marquez had absolutely no answer. He couldn't push off and he couldn't punch out.
And he lost.
Marquez-Gainer happened Nov. 1, 2003, at Van Andel Arena. Grand Rapids was excited for its first double-championship card, but Gainer acted disinterested. He refused to fight, refused to throw a punch, refused to do much of anything but run in circles. And Marquez couldn't do anything to stop it. He should have cut off the ring, grabbed Gainer and physically assaulted him. Instead, he followed Gainer as if he had a petulant puppy on a leash.
What ultimately saved the fight from itself was the two fighters miraculously finding themselves close enough to clash heads, opening a nasty cut above Gainer's eye, forcing a merciful stoppage and sending the fight to the scorecards, where Marquez had swept every round because scoring against him would have been nonsensical.
Mayweather saved the show again with a memorable knockout of Phillip Ndou.
Six months later, Marquez began to rescue his legacy by fighting Pacquiao, getting off the deck after three first-round knockdowns and saving a 12-round draw. Many people thought he won.
Marquez has achieved plenty to earn a shot at Mayweather as this 19th championship week of the Grand Rapids native's career gets under way.
But legacies merely earn fights.
Styles make them.
Whether too distant or too close, Marquez twice showed utter inability to solve boxing's most extreme tactics.
Mayweather, the craftiest man in the business, surely learned enough just from his own undercards to create frustration from such deficiencies.
Source: http://www.mlive.com/mayweather/index.ssf/2009/09/juan_manuel_marquez_has_achiev.html
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