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Doug Fischer

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Marquez Bros. Win Slugfests, Stop Jandaeng and Mabuza
By Doug Fischer (Aug 6, 2006) Photo © Tom Casino/SHOWTIME

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LAKE TAHOE, Aug. 5 – Juan Manuel Marquez took a big step in regaining some of the recognition as an elite fighter that he lost after almost two years of promotional strife and bad managerial decisions with a brutal and bloody seventh-round stoppage of Thailand’s tough Terdsak Jandaeng in the main event of a Showtime-televised featherweight bout at the MontBleu Resort & Casino’s Outdoor Pavilion.

Marquez, who improved to 45-3-1 (34), won the WBO’s “interim” 126-pound title with the grueling victory and may have set up a showdown with Scotland’s popular but troubled Scott Harrison, the real WBO champ who is currently on ice due to personal problems. However, only time will tell if Marquez squandered the late portion of his physical prime by butting heads with his former promoter, which resulted in his fighting only three times following his breakout fight with Manny Pacquaio in 2004, and ultimately led to his taking an ill-advised trip to Indonesia earlier this year where he dropped a controversial decision to local title holder Chris John.

Ring rust and Marquez’s age (32) seemed to be slight factors in the pedestrian opening round and through much of the second, but near the end of the second the former champ broke through with a left uppercut that stunned Jandaeng. The normally calculating and cautious Marquez immediately jumped on Jandaeng, pressing the tough Thai to the ropes a with a relentless two-fisted assault until another left uppercut put Jandaeng face down on the canvass for an eight count from referee Jay Nady.

However, Jandaeng, who dropped to 24-2 (15), was as strong and tough as advertised. The young (25) and active (21 fights since ‘04) contender got up and to his credit pressed Marquez in the third round, landing powerful left crosses that caused an immediate welt under Marquez’s eye that got worse as the fight raged on.

“He’s a tough southpaw fighter, so I not surprised he survived the first knock down,” Marquez said. “I wasn’t concerned [about the eye swelling] at first, but as it got worse I did start to worry about it.”

Marquez kept his cool and answered Jandaeng’s bull-like rushes and body shots (which occasionally strayed low) with accurate two-fisted combinations to the body and head.

In rounds four and five the two featherweights engaged in a hard, gritty, down and dirty slugfest that produced lots of hard exchanges and plenty of blood and bruises. However, by the sixth, Marquez was showing his boxing brilliance, shooting a double jab, side stepping Jandaeng and landing body shots with surgical precision.

A double right combination – an uppercut which he followed with an overhand shot – put Jandaeng on his back hard near the end of the round. Jandaeng, too hardnosed for his own good, refused to fall in the seventh round but he could not protect himself, forcing Nady to wave it off at 1:15 of the round.

“I’m ready to fight anyone in the 126- and 130-pound divisions – anyone,” Marquez announced after the fight was stopped.

In the co-featured bout, Juan Manuel’s younger brother Rafael Marquez defended his IBF bantamweight title for the seventh time with an impressive but hard-fought ninth-round technical stoppage of South Africa’s Silence Mabuza.

Marquez, who improved to 36-3 (32), fought Mabuza last November in a bout that ended in the fourth round due to a bad cut the South African sustained from a punch. Mabuza, who dropped to 19-2 (15) tonight, maintained that the laceration was from a head butt and that the outcome would have been different had he not been cut.

Mabuza was wrong about the outcome changing but he was correct in that it was a different fight the second time around as the two bantamweights put on an excellent championship bout.

Marquez started strongly behind a shot gun jab that stunned the challenger a couple of times, but Mabuza courageously fought his way into contention in the middle rounds utilizing his faster hands and deft footwork. It seemed like the no. 1 contender was about to take control of the bout until Marquez stepped up his pressure in the late rounds before badly staggering Mabuza with a series of left hooks in the ninth round.

Referee Tony Weeks stopped the bout in-between the ninth and 10th rounds on the suggestion of Mabuza’s corner. It was a good call as the brave and talented challenger was clearly a beaten man, having been repeatedly hurt in the previous round, plus suffering from numerous cuts around his eyes.

“I’m going to take nothing away from [Marquez],” Mabuza said afterward. “He’s a tough, tough fighter. I felt stronger in this fight, I was more prepared this time, I backed him up and I think I hurt him a few times, but he’s a great champion.”

Mabuza pushed the champ harder than anyone has so far in Marquez’s title reign. Digging deep and making for several rounds (particularly four, five and six) of riveting back-and-forth action.

“I was not surprised by his comeback in the middle rounds,” Marquez said afterward. “Mabuza’s a great fighter. The difference in this fight was my great conditioning. I got my second wind in the late rounds.”

In rounds seven, eight and nine, Marquez’s accurate jab and power-punch combinations forced Mabuza to move his legs more than his fists and caused a lot of acute swelling and bleeding cuts on the South African’s cheekbones.

“It was my decision to stop the fight,” said Mabuza’s trainer Nicky Durant. “He had four cuts on his face and my decision was based on that he could live to fight another day. The health and well being of my fighter is my priority, not winning the fight.

“There’s no shame in losing to Rafael Marquez, he is the no. 1 bantamweight in the world; Silence is no. 2.”

Marquez will not be the best bantamweight in the world for long as the 31-year-old boxer-puncher plans to vacate his title and step up to the 122-pound division.

On the non-televised undercard, popular middleweight prospect and local lad (Reno), Joey Gilbert improved to 12-1 (9) with an easy first-round blow out of overmatched Jason Aaker, who fell ot 8-5.

In other bouts, lightweight prospect Antonio Izquierdo, a former Cuban amateur standout now based in Mexico, made short work of Jonathan Nelson, dispatching the Oklahoma native with a vicious left hook one minute into the first round of their scheduled eight rounder. Nelson, now 13-14 (13), got up at Kenny Bayless’s count of eight on very unstable legs but the veteran referee quickly waved the bout off once it was evident that he couldn’t protect himself from the swarming Cuban.

Izquierdo, who was accompanied by Cuban/Mexican great Jose Napoles, improved to an announced 14-1 (13), but the prospect, who had nearly 400 amateur bouts, claims his pro record is 22-0 with 18 knockouts.

Izquierdo’s promoter Gary Shaw (who promoted tonight’s show) said he’ll put the 27-year-old fighter in a few more mid-level bouts before stepping up his competition but added that it won’t be long before they go for the top fighters in the division.

Former bantamweight contender Jorge Lacierva stopped Jose Berenza in the fifth round of a scheduled eight. Lacierva, who improved to 28-6-6 (20), dropped Berenza twice in the first round with hard right hands and gradually overwhelmed the crafty vet along the ropes, forcing referee Robert Byrd to wave the contest off at 2:16 of the fifth round. Berenza, who was game but too small to match power with Lacierva, dropped to 27-9-2 (25).

In the opening bout of the show, Russia’s junior middleweight prospect Vladimir Zykov improved to 17-0 (3) with a fifth-round stoppage over Minnesota’s game James Wayka, who dropped to 14-5 (8) in an entertaining scrap.