Rumors have been swirling since last week that WBO jr. welterweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez would be facing former jr. welterweight and welterweight champion Zab Judah on July 14th at Cowboys Stadium in Texas. Judah was the first to make comments about the fight, and Marquez, while not saying the rumors were true, said he wanted to face a southpaw and did not shy away from Judah being a possibility. However, according to Judah's Promoter, Main Events CEO Kathy Duva, the fight is far from a done deal. "There are discussions going on, but right now, it's just talk. I don't give it a high probability of getting done to be honest, but I've been wrong before. We're definitely trying though," stated Duva to FightHype on Monday afternoon.
Marquez has expressed his desire to face a southpaw in preparation for a possible 4th showdown with Manny Pacquiao in the fall. Top Rank had originally planned to match Marquez against Brandon Rios on the July date, but the recent lackluster performance of Rios against Richard Abril most likely took him out of the running. Marquez also stated on camera to a group of reporters that he would not face Rios because he wanted to face a southpaw.
Another southpaw name that's been thrown out as a possibility for Marquez was British southpaw Paul McCloskey, however, McCloskey suffered a 9th round TKO loss to 37-year-old former champion DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley on Saturday. With the lack of southpaws available for Marquez at 135 and 140, one has to wonder who Top Rank will decide to put Marquez in the ring with. Maybe Corley, who is coming off of 2 consecutive upset victories, will draw the assignment of the great Mexican warrior.
Top Rank says they plan to announce an opponent for Marquez some time this week, but that seems unlikely at this stage in the game.
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