Rafael Marquez Menez (born March 25, 1975)
is a Mexican former professional boxer. He won the IBF and IBO bantamweight
titles, the WBC super bantamweight title, and challenged for the WBO
featherweight title. His older brother Juan Manuel Marquez is also
a multiple time world champion.
Professional career
Marquez began
his professional boxing career with an eighth round knockout loss
to former WBC Bantamweight champion Victor Rabanales.
He gained
recognition by defeating two division world champion Mark Johnson
(40-1-0) by a split decision. In a rematch Marquez knocked out Johnson
in the eighth round in an IBF bantamweight title eliminator bout.
Bantamweight
On
February 15, 2003, he came from behind to knock out Tim Austin (25-0-1)
to claim the IBF Bantamweight title, in what was considered to be
a big upset. Marquez went on to successfully defend his title seven
times. His notable title defenses were two victories over former light
flyweight champion Mauricio Pastrana, a decision win over Ricardo
Vargas and two knockout victories over former as well as future IBO
Bantamweight Champion Silence Mabuza, whom he defeated for the second
time on August 5, 2006 in his final defense.
Super Bantamweight
Marquez
moved up a weight division to challenge and defeat WBC Superbantamweight
champion Israel Vazquez in seven rounds. However, in a rematch in
July 2007, Marquez lost his title after being defeated by Vazquez
in the sixth round when the referee stopped the fight. The rematch
was named the 2007 fight of the year. In the rubber match of their
trilogy, Rafael lost a split decision, with scores of 113-112 and
114-111 to Vazquez, with one judge seeing it 114-111 for Marquez.
Marquez may not have lost this bout if not for a point deduction for
a low blow in the tenth round. Marquez and promoter Gary Shaw claimed
that this hit was on the belt line and should not have elicited any
deductions. Marquez was able to knock Vazquez down for the first time
in the trilogy in his third fight, but Vazquez in turn put Marquez
down in the final seconds of the 12th round, securing the victory
and giving Marquez his fifth defeat.
Marquez was ranked number
three in The Ring magazine's pound-for-pound rankings, and ranked
as the Ring Magazine's number one Bantamweight boxer. He later became
the top ranked boxer in the Super Bantamweight division before his
loss to Vazquez.
Featherweight
Marquez was inactive for over a
year as he recuperated from the trilogy with Vazquez. On May 23, 2009,
he returned to the ring by scoring a 3rd round TKO over Jose Francisco
Mendoza (21-2-2) in the fetherweight division.
In the first
week of May 2010, Marquez announced his 4th and final match with Israel
Vasquez. After three epic battles, Vazquez and Marquez fought for
a fourth time on May 22, 2010 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles,
California. The bout was appropriately titled "Once and Four All"
and carried live by Showtime. Marquez scored a third round TKO victory
over Vazquez to even their series at two wins each. Afterwards, Marquez
stated; "The fifth one could be a possibility if the fans vote for
it. That is what I live for. Israel Vasquez is a great fighter."
In his next fight, he was scheduled to challenge undefeated WBO Featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez on September 18, 2010, however, the fight had to be postponed by several weeks when Marquez suffered a thumb injury which prevented him from training. Marquez would ultimately lose the bout by 8th round TKO after he was unable to continue due to a shoulder injury. After the fight, Marquez said that he had chosen to proceed with the bout despite a right shoulder injury suffered before the contest because he did not wish to cause a second delay. According to Marquez, he re-aggravated that injury in the third round during a flurry of punches.
