This is definitely interesting!! No, there will not be a 5th Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Manny Pacquiao fight. Instead Marquez will be taking on Timothy Bradley on Sept. 14th! Details of the bout after the jump…
Via Dan Rafael at ESPN:
Welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley Jr. and Mexican star Juan Manuel Marquez, both known for their history with Manny Pacquiao, are going to fight each other for Bradley’s 147-pound world title, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN.com on Tuesday.
They are due to meet Sept. 14 — Mexican Independence Day weekend, a date that usually is the target for a major fight involving a top Mexican boxer — at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas in the main event of an HBO PPV card.
“The fight is agreed to. We have contracts out to both fighters,” Arum said. “[Top Rank president] Todd [duBoef] worked hard with both sides and [Marquez co-promoter] Fernando [Beltran] worked hard with Marquez and we came to terms with both of them.”
A victory would put Marquez as the only fighter in Mexico’s storied boxing history to win world titles in five weight classes. He already has won titles at featherweight, junior lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight.
“It would be a very significant thing for Marquez to win another title,” Arum said.
“These guys wanted to fight each other, too. They really wanted to fight each other, even though either of them could have opted to fight Manny. But Bradley-Marquez is an interesting fight. People are going to see an action fight. Marquez is an action fighter, and Bradley showed he’s not afraid of slugging with anyone like he did [last month] in the fight with [Ruslan Provodnikov].”
(Story Continues…)
