In front of a small crowd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Juan Manuel Marquez and Michael Katsidis put on a fight that could very well be the fight of the year.
Marquez at the 37-years of age showed that he still has what it takes to hang with younger fighters. The warrior spirit and heart that Juan Manuel showed against a hard charging, in your chest pressure fighter like Katsidis is something that cannot be taught.
Early in the fight Marquez was knocked down in the third round with a vicious short left hook by Katsidis that would have knocked out most lightweights, but just like he did against Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, Marquez got up, shook it off, didn’t clinch and fought back while hurt, throwing combination’s at Katsidis immediately.
After constant pressure and back and forth action from both fighters, Marquez landed combination after combination on Katsidis hurting him in the ninth round causing Katsidis to finally stop pressing forward and start moving back. After seeing Katsidis hurt Marquez went in for the finish and didn’t stop throwing clean accurate combination’s on Katsidis, and referee Kenny Bayless stepped in to wave the fight off at 2:14 of the ninth round. Marquez successfully retains his WBA and WBO lightweight titles, and calls out Manny Pacquiao during the post fight interview saying the fans want a third fight with Pacquiao, but Manny Pacquiao himself doesn’t want to fight him.
Also on the HBO telecast, WBC champion Andre Berto retained his belt with a perfect first round knockout of Freddy Hernandez. Berto expressed his interest in fighting Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, and even Manny Pacquiao during his post-fight interview with Larry Merchant.
Underdog super featherweight Jason Litzau defeated Celestino Caballero by unanimous decision.
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