By James Slater: Mexican legend and all-time great Juan Manuel Marquez will not be fighting at Cowboys Stadium on July 14th after all. According to the man with all the news, Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, the reason is more than likely because no suitable opponent could be found for the interim WBO welterweight champ, at least not for a Pay-Per-View event.
Marquez, who still hopes to land a fourth fight with archrival Manny Pacquiao later this year, had wanted to fight a southpaw in preparation for Pac-Man. However, arguments with promoter Bob Arum resulted in no one opponent being agreed on (Zab Judah and Mercisto Gesta were on the shortlist, but in the end neither fighter was chosen for July 14th). We will now wait and see if Marquez fights in his homeland in July and who against.
There was talk of an all-Mexican super-fight between Marquez and Erik Morales on July 14th (a few years too late, but, hey, we’d still have tuned in), but it seems Marquez, 54-6-1(39) was not and is not really interested in that fight; even though Morales is reported to be more than up for it. As for the once-planned fight between Marquez and Brandon Rios fell apart soon after “Bam Bam’s” incredibly lucky, gift of a points win over the unfortunate Richard Abril (the April 14th fight surely being a strong candidate for 2012’s Robbery of The Year award).
So we will have to wait until the July at the earliest to see the incredible skills of Marquez in action once again. It’s probably tough for Marquez to get himself sufficiently motivated for anything other than a really big fight these days, and he is certainly hoping Pacquiao will dial his number after (if) he’s beaten Tim Bradley on June 9th. Whether Marquez takes another fight before his hoped for fourth crack at Pac-Man we will have to wait and see.
However, fans the world over really do want to see another instalment of Marquez Vs. Pacquiao, and hopefully we will get another chapter of the story before the end of this year.