Home Boxing History The Complicated Legacy of Juan Manuel Marquez

The Complicated Legacy of Juan Manuel Marquez

Ever since Juan Manuel Marquez’ retirement in 2014, it has been harder than I thought in assessing the Mexican’s legacy in boxing. Statistically, it looks good after he left with a record of 56-7-1 and 40 of those victories coming by knockout. Campaigning through five weight divisions, he won titles in four of them. He lost 7 times in his career but was never found to fail the referee’s 10 count in any of them although he did not possess a granite chin. The likes of Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao managed to floor him. But they never could keep him there!

Marquez was very proficient and natural at being a counter puncher and is now seen as one of the best counter punchers in boxing of all time. He wasn’t afraid to slug it out if he had to, though. One of his faults was that sometimes he was not aware of his position in the ring and would find his back against the ropes where his opponent would often unload on him. However, his counter punching ability often saw him out of trouble and he always had enough in the tank to dig deep to get a win. Refer to his knockout win over Manny Pacquiao in their fourth and final 2012 encounter in which he flattened the eight weight Filipino after having his nose fractured.

But here is where it gets a little complicated. Marquez is mostly known for being Manny Pacquiao’s nemesis and not his other achievements. Add to that, the opposition that Juan beat were a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to how strong their own legacies are. I often see the likes of Timothy Bradley, Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis’ legacies called into question. But of course, for every Diaz there is a Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao. He lost his first world title challenge (and knocked down) to Freddie Norwood in 1999 and then went on to come second to Chris John in 2006 by a unanimous decision after his first fight with Pacquiao. He was deducted points for low blows in the John fight but given how wide the scores turned out that would have been irrelevant. Bradley also overcame him, which was perhaps a crucial loss given Bradley’s credentials in being a two weight champion. I am not going to be too hard on Marquez when it comes to the defeat to Floyd Mayweather given that was his first time challenging at welterweight. And nobody managed to find the answer to beat Floyd.

Michael Katsidis, Juan Diaz, Joel Casamayor, Manuel Medina, Rocky Juarez and Derrick Gainer are all pretty good names on Juan’s complete record. But you can always delve into that further and come to the conclusion that opponents like Medina had long seen better days by the time Marquez beat him. I don’t know about you, but even though he got that great win over Pacquiao, I feel a little unsatisfied.

As if Marquez just did not quite win that defining fight that he needed to elevate his legacy. Perhaps that is why he is often only referred to as the guy who beat Manny Pacquiao.

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