Juan Manuel Marquez Wants to Face Miguel Cotto at 147 Lbs.
Juan Manuel Marquez may have made the big first step to a possible comeback fight after being out of the ring for the last two years.
"El Dinamita’s" name was recently in the boxing headlines, mentioned as a possible next opponent for Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto. It was actually trainer Freddie Roach who first hinted of such a tiff, something he called as ‘perfect’ though a lot of that would depend on Marquez’ plans.
The Mexican champion heard of the idea and did mention that he was interested in making the fight happen if his body allows him to.
To find out, Marquez says that he has started training and admits that he felt soreness all over. Though such is only normal for someone who has been out of it all for quite some time, Marquez claims that his body is responding well.
"I need to make a decision and a professional decision, I need to get to 100 percent. We don't have much time to decide. I trained yesterday. I'm sore, but my body is responding well, and if we fight in May, we can announce it in March," said Marquez via ESPN.
The planned date will have to be ironed out though. Cotto wants a fight this June while Marquez surprisingly wants it held a month earlier (May). But based on the same report by ESPN, it seems that a feasible date would be later this 2016, either September or October.
If that were the case, it should give Marquez ample time to prepare after his long hiatus. Marquez has been kept out of the ring due to knee injuries so longer preparations could work to his advantage as well.
Marquez will however have to deal with a couple of things first. One includes ‘"El Dinamita’s" contract with Top Rank though promoter Bob Arum said he will not be putting pressure on the 42-year-old Mexican. "I don't want to put pressure on [Marquez] to return, but if he wants to come back we'll cooperate with him on future fights."
The second thing Marquez needs to sort out is the weight where he and Cotto will face each other.
Seeing that he will be fighting in a potential mismatch, Marquez at 147 lbs. and that there would be a rehydration clause on Cotto which will prevent the Puerto Rican from rising above the 152/153 lbs. weight the following day as he mentioned via Boxingscene.com.
Before facing Cotto, Marquez wants to have a tune-up fight to see if he can still perform in the ring. For his part, Cotto last took the ring in November where he lost to Canelo "Saul" Alvarez.
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