HANDPICKED BUT HAPPY

Raul Marquez, the 31-year-old former junior middleweight champ, is under no illusions. He knows he is the underdog against Sugar Shane Mosley in Las Vegas on 8 February. He realises that this fight is seen by the Mosley camp as a springboard to a September rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. But Marquez believes he has a chance to win.

He feels he has some things going for him in the scheduled 12-rounder. And he is giving himself the best possible chance by training in Las Vegas for a month before the fight and working with fast sparring partners such as prospect Ishe Smith, who got rave reviews from Fernando Vargas after serving as El Feroz’s chief sparmate for the De La Hoya fight.

Working as a ringside analyst for HBO Latino — the Spanish-language offshoot of the television colossus — helped give Marquez the old urge to get back in the ring. Now, after four wins in his comeback (bringing his record to 34 wins and two losses, with 23 opponents stopped) he will once again be appearing in a big fight on HBO.

I would have thought this was unlikely after Marquez’s punishing though courageous loss to Vargas in September 1999, a fight I saw from ringside at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. But Marquez finds himself in the right place at the right time, which is always a nice, if rare, position to be in, in boxing or in life.

Marquez started his comeback two years ago as a heavy middleweight but will be moving back to the 154lbs (11st) division for the Mosley fight.

There had been talk of an all-Texas showdown with the notorious Tony Ayala. But Marquez feels that Ayala never wanted the fight. Then, virtually out of the blue, the chance to meet Mosley came up.

Speaking from his hometown of Houston, Texas, Marquez said that he virtually made the match himself by getting in touch with Sugar Shane when he sensed that Puerto Rico’s Daniel Santos — first choice of the Home Box Office TV network — was pricing himself out.

Marquez explained: “Through the years I learned the boxing business and I was looking at the Puerto Rican paper on the internet and I knew he was demanding too much money — a million dollars or 750,000, something like that. I knew Yory Boy Campas [whose name had been suggested by Mosley’s people] wasn’t in, because HBO didn’t want him, so I knew if I could get in touch with Shane we could work something out because me and Shane go way back from the amateurs and I’ve covered four or five of his fights as a commentator with HBO Latino.”

Contact was made, and the next day a Mosley representative called with an offer for the fight. “I more or less knew what was in the pot and what I could get and we settled at $310,000. I knew more or less what the fight was worth. My manager Robert Mittleman, he’s a good guy and he’s been hustling for me since we hooked up, he’s still getting his cut.

“I’m just happy that Shane gave me this opportunity and took me up on my challenge.

“I know I’m the underdog but it doesn’t bother me. I was campaigning in the middleweight division, and I’d much rather fight someone like Shane Mosley than someone like Bernard Hopkins.

“Shane is coming up in weight, he’s lost twice in a row to Vernon Forrest, so that means a lot. I’ve been watching tapes. The fight with Wilfredo Rivera was a very close fight up to the 10th round and I consider myself stronger and more powerful than Rivera.

“When I came back — you come back for opportunities like this. You want to fight the best. I think if I ever was going to fight Shane Mosley, it’s the best time to catch him right now. He was a great 135-pounder, he’s got the speed but I definitely feel I’m stronger. I have a game plan; it’s no mystery. You saw the Rivera fight and the Vernon Forrest fights — put a good, steady jab on him and try to rough him up.

“What I’ve noticed about Mosley, the guy holds a lot. He fights in spurts. As he’s gotten to the bigger guys, he tries to get off three or four punches and then he holds. He punches and then he clinches. We’re going to make sure the referee knows that. I can’t allow him to be holding me like that. I’m hoping the referee will break us up, or my thing is to turn him and punch him to the body. I know he doesn’t like body shots — he showed it in the Rivera and Forrest fights.”

Although Marquez was decisively beaten by Vargas in his last big fight he felt he had more to offer. “I wanted to give it one more go,” he said. “Actually, I wanted to compete at 160 [pounds] because a lot of the guys I beat in the Olympic trials like Antwun Echols, Robert Allen, Lonnie Bradley, they made names for themselves in the middleweight division. But this opportunity arose, and I can still make the weight. I’ve been keeping busy in the gym. And working for HBO Latino in the commentary job, that made me want to come back.

“In this fight, if I lose, that’ll be it. But if I win of course I’ll keep going. I can’t see him hurting me. I sparred with Rivera and I’m bigger and stronger and I see myself a better fighter than Rivera, and he was giving Mosley everything he could handle — he was breathing hard.

“Being that he’s coming up in weight and he’s lost two fights in a row and he doesn’t like body shots and doesn’t like to get roughed up, I really give myself a chance. If I didn’t I don’t think I’d be taking the fight. I feel like he’s looking ahead, he’s thinking ‘De La Hoya, De La Hoya’ — and that’s good for me. I was a better amateur than he was. I made the Olympics and he didn’t, but I’m not saying I’m a better pro than him. I’ve had my wars and stuff but the last war was with Vargas and that was three years ago. The rest has really helped my body. And he’s been in two back-to-back wars with Vernon Forrest.

“At the press conference at the Mandalay Bay [to announce the fight] he looked like a small guy. I don’t think he’s strong enough to be at 154, but we’ll see. But all that I’ve said, that’s why I give myself a chance.”

Marquez, father of three sons, never made the millions that some fighters have but describes himself as comfortable. He earned well as the International Boxing Federation champion, making two successful defences before losing the title due to suffering cuts and swellings against Yory Boy Campas. When he fought Vargas he was attempting to regain the title.

He said: “I have a beautiful home in a nice area of Houston — I don’t live that far away from George Foreman — and it’s paid for, I have money put away in the bank, my vehicles are paid off, I have my job with HBO. I just look at a lot of the fighters who made millions — you know who they are — and you know what, I’m better off than those guys. I’m comfortable, I’m happy. I feel I’m very lucky, what I’ve accomplished in boxing, and if I can win this fight it’s gonna help even more because I’ll finally be looking at a million-dollar payday. But I know if I win it will be the upset of the year.”

Full fight preview appears in the February issue of Boxing Monthly