-On February 28th Juan Manuel Marquez proved he was the baddest man on Earth. He got a TKO in the 9th round, after he knocked down Juan Diaz two times. After the fight many expected him to call out Many Pacquiao instead he called out, the retired, Floyd Mayweather Jr. He claimed that Pacquiao was ducking him, which is possible, and that he wanted Floyd. He said he was willing to go up in weight to fight him.
-The fight started slow for Marquez as always. I scored the first three rounds going to Diaz. Marquez would back up against the ropes and Diaz would throw good-looking flurries. Marquez would juts dig in and pick his spots. Marquez was taking a lot of punishment in the early rounds. Marquez was shaken up after a strong left hook from Diaz in the 2nd round. Marquez punched his way out of it and regained his composure. Through the 4th round Diaz was very offensive. Once it was the 5th round Diaz slowed down and Marquez went to work. Marquez got cut during the 5th. During the 6th round, the quick flurries from Diaz missed their spots and both fighters started trading shots. Marquez consistently landed his power shots. In the 8th round Diaz slowed down a lot and Marquez really started to take over. Diaz got cut right over his eye by a strong left hook. This had been the best round of the night so far for Marquez. The 9th round was similar to the 8th. At the 2:20 mark Diaz went down after a strong left hook stunned him, followed by a flurry. Diaz got up slowly. Marquez attacks again and landed a powerful uppercut that sent Diaz backwards on the canvas. After the second knock down, the referee stopped the fight. Before the 9th round the judges had scored an even draw. The overall punch-count was 288/732 Marquez and 252/751 Diaz.
-This was the best fight of the year, only because in the Mosely-Margarito fight, Mosely dominated from the first bell. This fight went back and forth. Marquez looked really bad in the first rounds but that is his style. He always sizes up his opponents and takes over. With this said, there was also a very good under-card fight with Rocky Juarez taking on Chris John.
-This was Chris John's first fight in the US. He was definitely the more conditioned fighter. During the whole fight he used a lot of movement. Juarez always came in very square and tried attacking the body. He attacked the body consistently but it didn't seemed to effect John. John was fairly dominant but the 11th and 12th were definitely Juarez's best rounds. Juarez was very aggressive and cut the ring off from John. This was good but too little too late. Overall it was a very even fight. So even that the judges scored it a unanimous 114-114, a draw. John kept his titles and stayed undefeated. I had the fight scored 116-112 for Chris John. It was a very good fight and the boxing community would love to see a rematch.
-Juan Manuel Marquez is the best fighter in the sport today. He figures out his opponents strategy and changes his style for it. If only he could do it earlier in the fight. He did not win his two fights with Manny Pacquiao because he lost the early rounds. Some fighters might try to take easy competition but not Marquez. He consistently fights the best fighter in his divisions. Nate Campbell fought Ali Funeka. Marquez is willing to jump up in weight class and if he thinks he can, why not. All the top fighters right now want the winner of Hatton-Pacquiao in May, which will be Pacquiao. Marquez is looking beyond this and wants Mayweather. I don't think Mayweather-Marquez would be a very entertaining fight. Two good counter-punchers don't match up well. It wouldn't happen anyway because Marquez, unfortunately, in not a big draw. Only boxing connoisseurs know about him, not the average fans who buy up the pay-per-views. With all this said, Marquez is badder than Shane Mosley, badder than Nate Campbell, and badder than Manny Pacquiao. That's why he's he baddest man on earth.
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I think that your blog is very detailed and this lets me visualize what you are talking about.
ReplyDeleteI do hope that maybe you could make a little note for what certain boxing terms mean so it would be easier to follow since I do not follow boxing that much.
Thanks for letting me read your blog!
This past year, I caught a couple fights on HBO, but I really don't know who's who in the boxing world (except for Pacquaio). You have an awesome breakdown of the fight. I almost thought I was watching it while I was reading. Pacquaio's been getting a lot of attention lately, but the way you describe JMM really has me questioning who really is the baddest boxer around. So if not Mayweather, who would make a worthy opponent and an entertaining match for Marquez?
ReplyDeleteGreg, you got a great concept here and I love that you have your own sports production company. I remember you talking about boxing last semester in radio. As you know I really don't follow boxing. Not because I don't like it just because well I don't follow it. There is really no reason. I think your blog will be particularly interesting to me because now I have a place to find out the latest boxing information. I have discussed sports with you for the past two years now and I know you are a credible source. The last fight I remember watching was Lewis vs. Tyson in June of 2002. However, you may have inspired someone to become a boxing fan through your blog.
ReplyDeleteHey Greg. I really enjoyed reading your review of Juan Manuel Marquez' s fights. I really don't follow boxing, except when the family gets together at work to watch Oscar De La Hoya because my aunts LOVE him. I really felt from your review that I was there and you were really detailed with your descriptions. I agree with Juliet though, I think I need a boxing dictionary too. I also liked how at the end of the post you analyzed why J.M.Marquez is "The baddest man on Earth".
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ReplyDeletehey man,
ReplyDeletegreat idea for a blog. i have to say though, i don't follow sports on a regular basis -- though i appreciate and admire the skill and art of boxing -- so it's a little hard for me to relate to your topic. despite this, there are plenty of others, i know, who would follow a sports blog with such great coverage, religiously! great start, greg.
Like everyone else, I don't follow boxing all that much. You were very descriptive and gave a nice play by play of all the action. You mentioned that Pacquiao might be ducking Marquez and that Mayweather wouldn't be willing to come out of retirement to fight him. So, I was wondering what your dream match of the year would be and the most entertaining fight to likely happen is. Also, who would win? One last thing...the last I heard of Mayweather was him participating in the WWE. Could he handle the layoff and make the comeback?
ReplyDeleteI am very impressed by your blog. It really expresses your passion for boxing. My first impression of your blog was " This is very masculine!" Thats a good thing because it attracts your targeted audience. What exactly is your method? Do you pick and choose which fights you want to blog about or do you only write about the headliners? What about women boxers?
ReplyDeleteYour writing style is very well-organized. You have great potential. You could write for any a newspaper or magazine.
ReplyDeleteClearly you know your stuff. It's harder for those of us to follow who aren't huge boxing enthusiasts (or know anything about it at all) but I enjoy reading about any sport in this kind of detail. I'm very curious to see what other sports you write about in the future! I will be checking in come football season for sure.
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