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Lem’s latest: Marquez calls KO of Pacquiao ‘divine justice’

Fighters Network
29
Sep

marquez vs pacquiao iv_4

Juan Manuel Marquez calls his sixth-round knockout victory over Manny Pacquiao “divine justice” during the debut episode of HBO’s 24/7: Bradley-Marquez in advance of Marquez’s Oct. 12 bout with WBO 147-pound titleholder Tim Bradley.

Marquez left Pacquiao face-down and motionless at 2:59 of the last round of a fight that had featured knockdowns by each fighter.



“It was great. The best thing that’s ever happened to me in this sport…I believe in divine justice. This fight is proof it is real. To win the way that I did, it’s like God gave me a way to do it,” said Marquez, who was 0-2-1 against Pacquiao over the course of three prior meetings. “That punch carried the strength of my family. The strength of my entire training. The strength of my entire Mexican fans.”

Pacquiao will try to rebound from the knockout, as well from the split-decision loss to Bradley that preceded it, in Macau on Nov. 23 (Nov. 24 in the western hemisphere) against rising junior welterweight Brandon Rios.

“I felt like I could beat him after the first round. I felt strong. I felt agile. I felt fast,” said Marquez, who turned 40 in August, of his confidence against Pacquiao. “The time keeper signaled the 10 seconds left. I didn’t hear anything. I was just waiting for Pacquiao to feint. When Pacquiao feints, he leans forward. I kept waiting for that feint so I could land that counter punch, and that’s how I ended it.”

Next up is Bradley, who rose from a 12th-round knockdown to secure a unanimous decision over Ruslan Provodnikov in March in defense of the title he won from Pacquiao.

Bradley points out that, while he absorbed plenty of damage against Povodnikov, he still has enough left to retire Marquez.

“After the Ruslan fight, they were okay with fighting me, because they think I’m damaged goods,” said Bradley, who also said of Marquez: “He chose to stick around, man. He should have retired at the highest point of his career.”

JEAN PASCAL STOPS GEORGE BLADES ON ADONIS STEVENSON-TAVORIS CLOUD CARD

Former light heavyweight champ Jean Pascal (28-2-1, 17 knockouts), middleweight David Lemieux (30-2, 28 KOs ) and 175-pounder Eleider Alvarez (13-0, 8 KOs) were all victorious on Saturday’s undercard of RING and WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson’s seventh-round knockout over Tavoris Cloud at Bell Centre in Montreal.

Pascal came up with a fifth-round knockout of George Blades (23-5 16 KOs) in a 180-pound catchweight bout, having previously been in action during a unanimous-decision triumph over Aleksy Kuziemski.

Before facing Kuziemski, Pascal lost to Bernard Hopkins in May of 2011. Pascal is next scheduled for a fight with former IBF super middleweight titleholder Lucian Bute on Jan. 18.

Although unable to add to his run of four straight stoppage wins, Alvarez unanimously decisioned former title challenger Edison Miranda (35-9, 30 KOs).

Lemieux managed a unanimous decision over Marcus Upshaw (15-11-2, 7 KOs), also ending Lemieux’s run of knockout victories at four. Lemieux’s lone setbacks were against Marco Antonio Rubio and Joachim Alcine by seventh-round knockout and majority decision, respectively.

GLEN TAPIA, JESSE HART, TOKA KAHN-CLARYA SCORE STOPPAGE VICTORIES

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Junior middleweight Glen Tapia l(20-0, 12 KOs) scored his second consecutive stoppage victory on Saturday night with a fifth round knockout of Elco Garcia (27-9, 13 KOs) as part of Top Rank’s Solo Boxeo Tecate card in Atlantic City.

A 23-year-old from Passaic, N.J., Tapia was last in the ring for a bloody eighth-round technical knockout victory over Abraham Han in July. A former sparring partner for Pacquiao, Tapia’s is managed by Pat Lynch, who fomerly handled the late Arturo Gatti.

Also on the card, Philadelphia-born super middleweight prospect Jesse Hart (10-0, 9 KOs) knocked out Terrence Wilson (6-8, 3 KOs), and junior lightweight Toka Kahn-Clary (8-0, 6 KOs), of Providence, R.I., came up with a sixth-round knockout over Victor Sanchez (5-7-2, 2 KOs).

ATTORNEY, BOXING PROMOTER VENROY JULY RETURNS TO THE RING

Cruiserweight Venroy “Hard Work” July (15-1-2, 6 KOs), a native of St. Catherine, Jamaica, earned a seventh-round technical decision victory over Joel Godrey at the Patapsco Sports Arena in Baltimore on Saturday as part of a nine-fight card that was promoted by July.

An attorney in Baltimore, July was coming off a unanimous decision over Rayford Johnson in June that helped him to rebound from a third-round stoppage loss to Elvin Sanchez in February.

Also on the card, welterweight bout between Baltimore’s James Stevenson (20-0, 13 KOs) scored a fourth round stoppage of James Hope.

DUSTY HERNANDEZ-HARRISON ON GENNADY GOLOVKIN-CURTIS STEVENS CARD

Unbeaten welterweight Dusty Hernandez-Harrison, a 19-year-old Washington, D.C.-based fighter who is of Irish and Puerto Rican descent, will face Josh “Pitbull” Torres on the Nov. 2 undercard of the HBO-televised clash between WBA middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin and Curtis “Showtime” Stevens on HBO from the Theatre in New York’s Madison Square Garden, according to a release by his handlers.

Hernandez-Harrison (17-0, 10 KOs) will make his first appearance at The Garden in search of his second consecutive stoppage win against Torres (12-2, 5 KOs), who is riding a five-fight winning streak and represents the teenager’s most difficult test.

In the main event, Golovkin (27-0, 24 KOs) will pursue his 15th straight knockout win against Stevens (25-3, 18 KOs), a 28-year-old Brooklyn native who is coming off a first-round stoppage of Saul Roman last month after having earned an eight-round unanimous decision over Derrick Findley in April at The Garden.

Golovkin was last in the ring for a third-round knockout of Matthew Macklin, which followed a third-round stoppage of Japanese contender Nobuhiro Ishida and a bloody, seventh-round knockout of Gabriel Rosado, all this year.

Also on the card is a match featuring hard-hitting heavyweights Magomed Abdusalamov (18-0, 18 KOs) and Mike Perez (19-0, 12 KOs).

Photo by Naoki Fukuda

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]

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