Juan Manuel Marquez says focus on upcoming fight, then Manny Pacquiao
Despite claims that he should battle Manny Pacquiao a third time, Juan Manuel Marquez insists he is focused exclusively on upcoming November 27 opponent, Michael Katsidis.
Marquez looks to defend his WBA/WBO lightweight titles against Katsidis, the WBO interim champion, in a Las Vegas fight that will be featured on HBO.
Marquez told Ernesto Castellanos, of notifight.com: “My whole focus is on this fight against Katsidis. I've seen him fight several times, and I can say that he is a very strong fighter, and all his fights are exciting because he doesn't
take a step back and always comes forward. He is also confident in his strength. I'm ready to win and it will be a hard fight," Marquez said.
Talks speculating on the possibility of a third encounter between Pacquiao and Marquez emerged this weekend after Pacquiao successfully defeated Antonio Margarito for the WBC junior middleweight title. Marquez, having fought Pacquiao twice, feels poor judging
stopped him from winning a first bout that was declared a draw.
"I see that it's more and more unlikely that a third fight between me and him [Pacquiao] will happen,” Marquez said. “He definitely doesn't want anything to do with me because I'm the one who made him suffer. I'm positive that I won the first fight that was
called a draw, and the second fight was stolen from me.”
Team Pacquiao has said that they will likely remain inactive until mid-2011, in order to give Pacquiao adequate time to rest and recover from the Margarito bout.
Marquez indicated that if a bout with Pacquiao cannot be arranged, he will move up to the junior welterweight division to search for another world title. That would mean clashing with the likes of Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley, and Amir Khan.
"My desire is to win a fourth world championship at super lightweight,” Marquez said. “I will be working to accomplish this next year.”
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