LAS VEGAS – While Floyd Mayweather Jr. scorned their fight’s promoter and his uncle Roger ripped every other boxing trainer in the world, Juan Manuel Marquez made the biggest statement of fight week so far when he took the podium on Wednesday and spoke in clear, confident English.
Marquez is a major underdog in Saturday’s comeback fight for the unbeaten Mayweather, yet the longest odds of the Mexican three-division champion’s career don’t seem to shake his growing confidence, both in front of cameras and in the ring. Although Marquez is solidly bilingual, he has rarely used English in public until recently.
“I feel as good and happy as I can,” Marquez said. “I always put forth the effort, and now I see the reward. I don’t want to be the Mexican No. 1 fighter. I want to be the global No. 1.”
With a huge payday awaiting him after the highest-profile bout of his career, Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) might feel he has validation in a tumultuous career that has included frustrations and triumphs in almost equal numbers – most notably his failure to win two agonizingly close fights against Manny Pacquiao.
Marquez has spent much of his career with a chip on his shoulder from those bouts, which propelled him in strange directions. After famously turning down a $750,000 rematch for his 2004 draw against Pacquiao because he felt insulted, Marquez ended up traveling to Indonesia to fight for $30,000 against Chris John, who claimed Marquez’s 126-pound (57-kilogram) title with a hometown decision.
Now, John is fighting on Marquez’s undercard at the MGM Grand Garden.
“He’s had some tremendous knockout fights, and he’s just beginning,” Oscar De La Hoya said of the 36-year-old Marquez. “He’s just getting started. We haven’t even seen everything Juan Manuel Marquez is capable of doing, and (Mayweather) is about to find out.”
Although Marquez is widely respected, he’s never even been considered Mexico’s greatest active fighter until the past few years. Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera were quicker to fill the vacuum created by Julio Cesar Chavez’s decline, but Marquez has proved to be the best and most enduring of the trio.