LAS VEGAS — When a fighter is as special as Juan Manuel Marquez, it shouldn't take this long for him to reach this level.
In 16 years as a professional, however, Saturday's bout vs. Floyd Mayweather at MGM Grand will be just the second time he has headlined a pay-per-view event (HBO PPV, 9 p.m. ET).
A featherweight for most of his career, this is Marquez' first bout above lightweight (135). The non-title bout is being billed as a welterweight fight even though it'll take place a few pounds below the 147-pound limit.
Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs), the pound-for-pound king before he took a two-year layoff, is a heavy favorite.
"It doesn't matter with me when people say Mayweather (will) win," says Marquez, a Mexico City native who has rarely been an underdog. "I will put my Mexican heart inside the ring."
Until recently, when there was talk of all-time great Mexican fighters, the role call would read, in order, Julio Cesar Chavez, Salvador Sanchez, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales.
It wasn't until five years ago that Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) started to creep into the picture on the heels of a draw in his first fight with Manny Pacquiao.
Marquez was dropped three times in the first round, his nose broken on the final one, but got up to not only finish the 12-round featherweight championship fight but win more rounds against the hard-punching and mythical pound-for-pound king.
In 2007, Marquez finally got a shot at Barrera and won a unanimous decision. He never fought Morales, who fought a trilogy with Barrera from 2000-04, the last two PPV shows.
Marquez, 36, left Bob Arum's Top Rank and signed with Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions in 2006.
?All the time I been behind Morales and Barrera. I know it?s my time,? says Marquez of feeling frozen out against his countrymen. ?I?m very angry...Three fights (with) Barrera and Morales? What happened to Marquez? My promoter didn?t give me the opportunities.?
Even though he lost a split decision in a rematch with Pacquiao 18 months ago, Marquez came back to win the lineal lightweight crown, becoming the first to knock out the long dominant but underrated Joel Casamayor.
In February he became the first to KO Juan Diaz in a leading candidate for Fight of the Year.
He expects Mayweather, who has fought as high as 150 pounds, to impose his perceived advantage in strength.
"I think Mayweather is going to come out with everything in the first round. He's not going to wait," Marquez says. "If that happens it's going to be a great fight."
The anticipation is so great for Marquez that he revealed he'll do anything — including drinking his own urine for extra vitamins in HBO's series 24/7: Mayweather/Marquez— to win.
The sight of Marquez downing the yellow liquid in a clear glass without the slightest cringe has created a national buzz. That 24/7 episode is one of the network's top two-rated shows since they began airing before PPV fights two years ago, according to Mark Taffet of HBO PPV.
"A fighter who's lost before, he's got doubt. There's a blueprint on how to beat Marquez," Mayweather says. "There's not a blueprint on how to beat Mayweather.… But I'm not going to drink urine or nothing like that. (That's) crazy."
A win of this magnitude would put Marquez alongside, and maybe even above, his idol, Chavez (107-6-2). "It'll make Mexican people crazy," he says. "Me, too."
No lien: There is no longer an Internal Revenue Service lien on Mayweather's purse, meaning that the IRS will not show up at today's weigh-in to collect the roughly $6 million Mayweather was believed to have owed.
Source: usatoday.com
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