Marquez - Katsidis: Who do you WANT to win?

2 very popular fighters amongst us British fans. Thought it would be interesting to see who is more so.

 

Torn....

But my heart's with Michael for this one after the loss of Stahi.

 

Not bothered who wins in all honesty as long as it's a good fight. I wouldn't be disappointed if either fighter lost as long as there's no bad calls/decisions & it's a good fight

 

Marquez

 

Katsidis, dont think he will though!

If he does, after what he has been though during this camp he will be my all time favorite fighter!

 

Jmm

 

Have a hell of a lot of respect for Marquez but Katsidis is probably my favourite fighter in the sport now so I'd love to see Katsidis pull it off.

 

Katsidis.

 

Id love to see Katsidis win this....but i always hate to see JMM lose.

Its very difficult. Il be fans of both whatever happens

 

Kats, though I love both. I'd love to see Katsidis get that career defining win and do it for his brother. I think I'd probably end up in tears myself if he wins then breaks down in the ring!

http://boxing.fanhouse.com/2010/11/26/michael-katsidis-dedicating-juan-manuel-marquez-fight-to-my-b/

FanHouse: Is there anything that you would like to say to your fans regarding how you are doing heading into Saturday's fight with Juan Manuel Marquez?

Michael Katsidis: I'm pretty happy. I'm a very proud person. I'm proud of being a half-Greek Australian. Of course, I'm dedicating this fight to my brother, Stathi Katsidis.

I want to do my country proud, and there's one man standing in between me and doing that and that's Juan Manuel Marquez, so you can expect a war. I just urge everyone to watch the fight and I think that they're going to see something great.


So how has your training gone for what amounts to perhaps the biggest fight of your career against Juan Manuel Marquez?

I've had to deal with a lot of -- some demons, you know?. So I've had to dig very deep to do some of the things that I believe that I'll need to do in order to win the fight.

I personally believe, and my trainer believes, that the demons that I've faced are a lot bigger than Juan Manuel Marquez. So we've had a very tough camp and we've done the work. So I'm just looking forward to Saturday night.


When you say demons, what do you mean? Well, there has been a lot of speculation about me with this fight. It's been a very tough camp, but nothing in this sport is ever easy.

We've endured some tough times, and I've had to deal with a lot of demons. It's been demons as in like things that you have to deal with and face when you're in training camp. You deal with a lot of stuff.

And, if you're a fighter, you know that, like any fighter, you go through a lot of things, and you deal with a lot of things. This training camp has been the hardest that I've had yet.

I've had to deal with a lot, and I'm here. If I wasn't here, and if I wasn't here to win, I wouldn't be here. So, I'm very happy that we've done the work and here we are.

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Can you discuss your recent tremendous victory over Kevin Mitchell?

The media in England was just talking about me as if I was an old guy, and that I had had some big wars and stuff like that [laughs.] They had a packed arena, and they were making Kevin Mitchell out to be the next Ricky Hatton.
There were 20,000 odd people there at their West Ham Park there, their football park there in London. They were all screaming for him and they made him a super star before the fight had even happened.

They pictured me as being a shot fighter, meanwhile, even though I was only 29 years old at the time. They said that they believed that I was a shot fighter, and I said, 'What's a shot fighter?'

Of course, Kevin Mitchell is like 26 and he's 31-0. They pictured me as some sort of old guy [laughs.] I could do nothing but laugh when I looked at it that way. But that really insulted me to hear that.

So I got out there and I knocked the guy out in three rounds. You can't blame them. They thought that they had another Ricky Hatton and they were excited about that.

They wanted something, and they were hoping that Kevin Mitchell might be the one. He was a very good fighter, but I hit him with a couple of good shots at the start, and that changed the fight.

Unless you're shot, you learn something every fight in this business. I think that I proved a point in that fight against Kevin Mitchell, and here we are now.

Of course, with every fight, I've picked up something and learned something. I haven't suffered any major damage like a shot fighter would.

Every way, all around, I was better in that fight with Kevin Mitchell. Each fight, I've progressively improved. You can talk about different aspects of skills in a fighter, like his power, stamina, everything.

Those things have improved within me in every fight. Because you learn as you go. Unless you've been a fighter who has been knocked about severely, and that question mark was over my head going into the Kevin Mitchell fight.


During your most recent press conference, what did you see in the eyes of Juan Manuel Marquez during the staredown?

Well, it was at the MGM here just about a half an hour ago. All I saw was someone looking back at me, really. There was just a blank stare. I don't think that there was anything unusual about it.

You can get a blank stare like that from any bloke sitting on the side of the street, too. I don't think that it has anything to do with whether or not he's a veteran or anything like that.

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Do you believe that you can show a 37-year-old veteran like Juan Manuel Marquez anything that he hasn't seen before?

No, I don't think that I've got anything to offer that he hasn't seen before. I think that he's seen everything. He's very experienced and he's a veteran and he's the best out there.

So, as far as the fight, I'm coming to win the fight. So, of course I've had to dig very deep.


How do you deal with the style of crafty, counter-punching veteran with a solid chin like a Juan Manuel Marquez?

A lot of that stuff is touching very close to and leaning toward how I'm going to fight him the night of the fight. So I'm not going to go anywhere near any of that. I've always been defensive in answering those questions before I go into a fight.

I don't mean to be rude, but it's a war, so I have to steer away from those types of questions and keep my cards close to my chest. On the night of the fight, you'll see what I've got to offer.

But there has been a lot of people who say, 'Oh, Michael Katsidis fights the same way every time,' or, you know, 'he's just a brawler,' or what have you. But you know, brawling or not, it's still boxing.

It's still taking the punches and giving the punches, and I think that, progressively, I've gotten better with every fight. This is one fight here where you're going to see two warriors in there.

Juan Manuel Marquez is a very tough guy, and I don't expect anything less from Marquez. He's trained to fight ,and he will fight. But anything can change a fight, just like this fight here.

Juan Manuel Marquez is a very, very tough guy, and he's shown that a lot. But anything can happen in a fight. Like my fight against Joel Casamayor, for example.

I was down twice in the first round and I had never officially been down in my career, and I came back from two knock-downs in that fight because the guy beat me to the punch at the start.

I had to fight the entire night with dead legs throughout the whole thing.


Do you feel like you are the underdog going into this fight with Juan Manuel Marquez?

I should be, but not much. The secret's out now. I'm not a shot fighter, and I knocked out Kevin Mitchell. In all honestly, I think that I was more of a long shot against Kevin Mitchell than I am now.

I was facing a lot longer odds when I was in England, but they're not counting me out with this Marquez fight. I think it's very tight when you're looking at the betting side of things. Of course, Marquez is the favorite, and he has every fight to be so.

 

C'mon kats........

 

Marquez

WAR MER-E-CO :toney

 

Great article Scouse. :good

 

Marquez im not that clued up on foreign fighters starting to try and watch more,but JMM is one of my favourite fighters along with nishioka since i saw him against munroe.

 

Yeah its pretty good init? Nice to see something different than "Im gonna batter him" anyway!