Israel Vazquez vs Rafael Marquez: The Final Chapter

[People's Champ]

So I'm m/aking this thread so that the "Favorite Boxing Rivalry" thread doesn't turn into a discussion about this fight coming up on Saturday. Now I'm not going to get into detail about these guys huge trilogy they had in 07-08. If you are a fan of boxing you remember those fight. If you want to see highlight or get an idea of what their fights were like, I highly reccommend checking out the "Your Favorite Boxing Rivalry" thread as links are posted there with highlights of each of their 3 fights. While your there, why not post your favorite rivalry? (Sorry for the shameless slef-promotion)

Now onto this fight. If you know anything about the war these guys had, its that they were badly beat up after their fights.. they took so much punishment from each other, they never regained their form. Marquez didn't fight for 14 moths after their trilogy ended. He went on to fight Jose Mendoza and scored a 3rd round Knockout. Vazquez got the worst of the punishment. He needed to have 3 surgeries on his retina which kept him out of action for 19 months. When he did return, he scored a 9th round knockout of Angel Priolo, tho it was a struggle. That leads us to Saturday.

Now its not necessary to give predictions right now, today being Thursday. I personally will wait till Friday or Saturday before I make my picks, although if you want to that's fine as well. But what do you think of this fight? What expectations do you have coming in?

I know we probably aren't going to see a fight like we saw 2 years ago. The pounding these guys received was a lot and has slowed them considerably. However, I believe these guys were made for each other. And while we probably won't see the level we saw they at before, I do think they will give what they have to entertain us one more time.

So what are your thoughts heading into this fight?

 

[People's Champ]

Well this fight didn't end exactly the way I thought it would. Vazquez just has too much damage done to his eyes, and the fact that he didn't allow enough time to let his eyes heal after his last fight proved to be his downfall. In the first round his left eye cut bad. In the 2nd it was his right eye. He just couldn't see with the blood flowing down and the only question was when would this fight be stopped.

Now, having said that, Marquez looked very good in the 3 rounds he fought. He didn't seem to show any effects of the war he had with Vazquez. He was quick, and threw a number of clean combinations. He was always known to start quick, and he definately did that. He doesn't look like he's finished with boxing after his brief performance. He looks in great shape and still has his skills in tact.

So now the series is tied 2-2. There has already been talk about having a 5th fight. A lot of things need to happen before that should even be discussed. First, there is talk that Vazquez is probably going to have ot have more surgery on his eyes in order to fix his problem with cuts. If you saw the fight, those cuts looked bad. If that problem doesn't get corrected then it might mean retirement from boxing. 2nd, how does Vazquez's body feel? We didn't get to see much form his because of the quick stoppage. Will he still be able to put his body through another fight? Marquez, as already mentioned, still has it. Does Vazquez?

So all in all, this fight was a letdown, with the cuts and all. It started to look tho as if we were going to see another good fight. Now time will tell if this truly was the final chapter in this rivalry, or if we are going to see one more to determine a winner.

 

[INDYjon22]

Not a terrible fight by any means but not as good as the previous fights either if you ask me. Like you said Champ, Vazquez had a lot of damage to his eye and it was just to much for him to overcome this time. Marquez looked good in the short span of time they had to fight and a fifth fight is coming, honestly it has to from a fans perspective. Marquez has two wins and Vazquez has two wins, we need to see a legitimate winner in this feud.

I was more impressed with the co-main event actually. The names of the fighters escapes me currently, obviously because of my lack of knowledge in boxing, but both fighters looked very good in what was a terrific fight to open the live broadcast or at least it was for me.

 

[People's Champ]

That fight you were thinking of was Yonnhy Perez vs Abner Mares. And I agree that that was an entertaining fight. I don't like draws but I could see why it was. Mares looked good in the first few rounds, Perez (who was the champ) took over the middle rounds, and then Mares came back in the later rounds. I felt Mares and his running around the ring hurt his chances to win, as it lokked like he was avoiding the fight. But I have to agree that that was a really good fight to watch.