Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) will be fighting former WBO light welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) on May 17th at the Forum, in Inglewood, California, USA. The winner of the fight will be facing the winner of the April 12th fight between Manny Pacquiao vs. WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley.
Marquez, 41, wants a chance to win a 5th division world title; whereas Alvarado is just looking to get his career back in order after getting stopped in the 10th round last October by the tough as nails Ruslan Provodnikov.
It’s unknown why Marquez feels that he needs to win another world title in order to somehow validate his career, as he’s already shown he’s a Hall of Fame type of fighter. Winning another world title is pretty much a meaningless thing at this point, especially if it comes against Pacquiao, who he already beat in his last fight. You have to wonder whether Marquez will feel he needs to win a 6th world title if he accomplishes his goal of winning a 5th. It goes on and on, and it’s not really worth it.
If Marquez were to fight the best fighter in the welterweight division in Floyd Mayweather Jr., then it would be understandable for him to want to pick up another world title. But for him to be looking to face the winner of the Pacquiao-Bradley fight for the WBO 147 lb title, it would be like winning a lesser version of the title. Those guys aren’t in Mayweather’s league, and the title that Marquez would be winning would be more of a paper variety than the real thing. Mayweather is the legitimate champion in my view. Pacquiao has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights, and Bradley has a recent controversial win over Provodnikov. Neither guy is in Mayweather’s league.
It kind of looks bad that Marquez turned down a fight against Provodnikov to fight Alvarado. It looks bad because Alvarado was recently knocked out by Provodnikov. Why is Marquez interested in facing a guy that was just knocked out instead of Provodnikov? I see that as a weak move by Marquez.
