On whether or not he can win a decision if he does not score a knockout or knockdowns:

“You know, I trained hard for this fight, and I’m not thinking about the knockouts. What I think is that I’m in the perfect condition, and if the knockouts come, then they will come. I think that that’s something that would be a bonus for the hard work and the real sacrifices and the training that I’ve done.

“A knockout, that’s the prediction of my coach [trainer Freddie Roach,] but I don’t predict that in a fight. I will do my best. I believe that even without the knockout, that I can still win the fight. If it’s a chess match, I can still win that fight. I didn’t practice the counterpuncher/boxer before the last two fights.

“But this time, since the last three years ago that we fought, I’ve learned how to fight a counterpuncher/boxer and how to move side-to-side and to create little openings so that I can counterpunch also.”

On whether the rivalry with Marquez has become personal for him:

“First, I think that he realized that it’s not good for a boxer to do the trashtalking to your opponent or somebody else. I just want to give the example that you can be a good fighter and still be a good boxer even if you don’t say bad things bout your opponnet.

“But I think that for this fight, he went to the Philippines wearing a shirt. A T-shirt saying that I beat Manny Pacquiao twice and that they robbed me. It’s kind of something that made me angry. I’m not angry at Marquez, but that’s helped me. That’s his freedom to do that.

“For me, it’s something that, inside my heart, he’s my friend, but in the ring, we have business to do. We want to make sure that there is no issue after the fight that he won or I won. I want to make sure that the fight is not close and that he can’t claim that he won the fight.

On the notion of a toe-to-toe battle:

“It’s easy to say that it’s going to be a rumble or a fight that’s toe-to-toe. I have had that before with my opponents. But when you get into the ring, it’s not always that way. We’ll see if that’s true or not on Saturday.

“But I’m not thinking about that. Of course, I’m thinking about how I’m going to win the fight. How people are going to be satisfied with our performance on Saturday. As long as we give another good fight to the fans, then I will be happy that people will like it.”

On Marquez’s increase in weight:

“Marquez is trying to put more weight on his body. I know that that he does not have to reduce his weight to make 144 pounds. He has a conditioning coach like what I have in Alex Ariza. I hope that his conditioning coach did well. It’s not easy to put on more weight and to still maintain your speed.

“So, the problem with a boxer putting on more weight is that you can get slower and it’s going to be difficult. But that’s Marquez. He wants to put more weight on his body and he wants to be strong like somebody else [meaning himself].”

On his own speed retention and the period of adjustment since moving up in weight:

“I think that I’m faster right now than I have been in the past. I think that also I’m more experienced and I’m more different in the strategies that I use and the techniques that I use. I have learned more how to make the boxing easier.

“Boxing is really hard, but how to make it easier, that’s what I’ve learned. It’s not easy to put on and gain weight and to maintain speed. When I fought Oscar De La Hoya, I went up to 147 pounds, it was very hard, putting on that weight and maintaining the speed. But we had to do something with the training that helped us to maintain the speed.”