Juan Manuel Marquez has done a lot of shouting and hollering about how he feels he got jobbed against Manny Pacquiao, not once, but twice. His desire for a third fight has turned into an obsession. As we all know, Marquez finally got his wish and is now looking at a November 13th showdown with Pacquiao at Welterweight. But first, the lightweight champion is going to test the waters at a higher weight when he takes on the unheralded Likar Ramos in a Junior Welterweight showdown next weekend.
Ramos is a stiff in every sense of the word and is being picked because he's a southpaw and will serve as a Pacquiao tune-up for Marquez, who hasn't been in the ring since his November slugfest with Michael Katsidis in a fight that saw Marquez touch the canvas before regrouping to win. Though I highly expect Marquez to win, I wouldn't be surprised that, at 38 years of age and after taking a tremendous amount of punishment since his last fight with Pacquiao, Marquez's performance won't make people froth at the mouth for the Pacquiao fight.
The only thing I'm wondering about is, if Marquez looks bad or even loses, with the Pacquiao camp still go through with fight anyway. Whatever the case, a third fight with Marquez should have happened when both fighters were at 135, not at some catchweight of 144 pounds. Marquez will just be yet another old duck who will either get stopped because he's too brave for his own good, or he'll attempt to beat Shane Mosley's backpedal speed on the night of the fight.
The Best of the Rest
Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito are going to face off this December for Cotto's WBA Super Welterweight title in what will be one of the most anticipated fights of the year. Cotto is coming off a 12th round TKO victory over Ricardo Mayorga last March and Margarito was last seen getting his face broken by Manny Pacquiao, requiring career-threatening eye surgery. Though both guys are nowhere near as fresh as they were three years ago, this fight is even more compelling than their initial bout and I can't wait to see how it turns out.
Erik Morales will be returning on the undercard of Mayweather-Ortiz against British champion Anthony Crolla and the winner may somehow end up as the #1 contender for the WBC Jr. Welterweight title despite the fact that Morales lost his last fight against Marcos Maidana and Crolla isn't even ranked by the WBC. If Morales does get the spot, it might be enough to get Timothy Bradley to sign with Golden Boy and defend his belt against Morales some time in 2012.
Sebastian Lujan looked mighty good against Mark Melligen last week and promptly called out Devon Alexander to take his challenge. While Alexander will be looking to the direction of rival Paulie Malignaggi, a fight I would love to see is Lujan against Kermit Cintron, who is attempting to flop, er, I mean drop his way back to 147.
Potshot Picks:
Paul Williams vs. Erislandy Lara
Tough fight to call with both guys coming back from unimpressive performances in their last outings. Lara is stylistically all wrong for Williams and I think is motivated to take what could be his only chance for stardom. Williams, on the other hand, is thinking retirement after a few fights and will be the same old PDub that lost to Quintana and Martinez. I'm taking Lara in the upset.
Brandon Rios vs. Urbano Antillon
No disrespect to Antillon, but Rios is so much better than him and his conqueror Humberto Soto that I doubt he's going to have any trouble against him. Given the fistic nature of both guys, it's going to be fun while both of them are throwing punches, but I think it'll be a one-man fight sooner than people think. Rios in five.
Potshot Picks is 16-2 year to date.
(Danny Howard can be reached at dhoward@fighthype.com, Twitter @DBHoward126, and Facebook.)
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