I think I'd lean towards prime Nelson at his best in quite a close, competitive fight. Probably a bit too strong, well-rounded and able to vary his approach as well being a bit quicker of both hand and foot. Not really at much of a disadvantage in terms of text book punching either. Marquez's accuracy and ability to counter in combination would keep him in it though and see him with stretches of success, as would his feinting to set up his straight punching. His slowness on the front foot would really hinder him though as long as Nelson didn't do too much of the wading in in straight lines that he was sometimes prone to, usually mixed with more sophisticated aggressive box-punching and bouncy peripheral movement. He could be weird that way. The frenetic, raw Nelson of the Sanchez fight who never surfaced again vs Marquez would probably be an all time classic and more of a 50/50 fight. I like Marquez better vs Nelson than I do Barrera or Morales though.
I like Nelson too here .. It took JMM some time to be truly great imo .. I actually think his brother was the better boxer for the first 10 years or so
Great matchup but as great as Marquez was I would go for the Professor Azumah Nelson the greatest African fighter of all time. Imagine Nelson vs Chavez at Super featherweight?
I'm going with Nelson against Marquez - he'd just be too strong. Nelson v Chavez though? I honestly don't know!
