These two put on a very, very exciting featherweight contest behind Marquez's astonishing four fight trilogy with Vazquez, a fight that is undeservedly mostly forgotten now. Marquez was on the rough end of the combat and was repeatedly hurt and, in fact, quit before the ninth with a bad shoulder having had a bit of a mauling. But he absolutely had his moments and hurt Juan Manuel Lopez more than once, dug him out good. There's a very cool highlight of the fight here: This content is protected And the full fight here, time well spent: This content is protected Anyway, apart from drawing attention to this underrated combat, the purpose of this thread is to ask: do you think Marquez would have got JuanMa primeforprime?
I was at this fight. I wasn’t expecting Rafael to be able to win because of the wear and tear but I got pretty damn excited when he had him hurt in the 4th or 5th round. Rafael was a much better fighter prime for prime but would always be the smaller man. His peak was between 118-122. I know with hindsight he wishes he’d have moved up sooner. Top Rank neglected him and didn’t get him too many big fights after he beat Austin. They also let him sit inactive when he should have been fighting three times a year. I would say though, if Rafa bypasses the Vazquez re-match and goes to JuanMa that year then he would probably win the fight but he’d have to go through hell.
I'd like to pick Marquez. I'm a fanboy of both brothers. He's technically good enough to outbox Juanma and he's the tougher guy but Juanma was allot bigger at the weight than him
Nice pick. Anything good on the undercard? Hence the question. He's hard. He's 4-3 at feather during this period, which is awful, but he's the better technician with the better chin. Coming up to get it done against a big, good fighter like JuanMa, bit of a nightmare really.
That was a great exciting fight that does seem to be almost forgotten nowadays unfortunately. It was also the last time we see the best of Juanma Lopez, who showed decent boxing skills but would later be reduced to a one dimensional puncher. He lost to Salido in his next fight and afterwards his career just took a big fall and was never the same. Lopez’s skills have really diminished ever since. Against a prime Rafael Marquez without the wear and tear from Izzy I can see Marquez outboxing Juanma and stopping him. At his best Rafa was a monster in the ring, seen as the better brother over JMM at the time.
I remember seeing the Magdelano brothers who were both starting out and Glen Johnson beat up Allen Green in a Super Six fight. Yeah, Lopez was really a big featherweight getting down. He didn’t have a good chin though so Rafa would have that chance so you’d fancy in his prime when he was sharper he had a good chance.
I definitely pick Marquez here. I mean Penalosa was a much smaller man than Juanma but he was able to consistently land big shots on Lopez, he just didn't have the power to hurt him. Marquez does, imo. Marquez wouldn't pick Lopez off, he'd go to war with him but I take his superior punch arsenal against Lopez's questionable durability. Marquez ko.
