Marquez has earned his keep

HOUSTON – Almost exactly 10 years ago to the day, Juan Manuel Marquez climbed into a boxing ring inside of a tiny ballroom of a small casino in Coachella, Calif., before a few hundred diehard fans.

He brought a 27-1 record with him into that featherweight fight with Jose de Jesus Garcia and a deep, abiding belief in his own ability. Given the opportunity, Marquez would insist to the few who would listen, and there were no heights he couldn't scale.

Yet, it seemed back then, nothing Marquez could do could get him the fights that would convince the public of his many gifts. Prince Naseem Hamed was the kingpin in the featherweight division at the time, and Marquez was so far off Hamed's radar, he might as well have been a heavyweight.

It would still be seven more months before Marquez would fight for the world title. It would be four years before even those in the industry began to realize that he could fight more than a little.

And it would be five years until he blossomed into a legitimate superstar with a memorable performance in a draw with Manny Pacquiao. Marquez was knocked down three times in the first round of that fight in Las Vegas, but rallied to force a draw in a fight that many believe to this day he won.

Clearly, much has changed between the night that a pair of relatively anonymous featherweights battled in that ring in Coachella and Saturday at the Toyota Center in Houston, when Marquez defends the lineal lightweight title against hometown hero Juan Diaz in a fight televised nationally by HBO.

"Nobody wanted to listen to me and nobody wanted to give me a chance," Marquez said of what are the dark ages in his eyes. "It was very frustrating. Sometimes, you just wonder, 'Is this ever going to happen?' "

Marquez has become inextricably linked to Pacquiao in the five-plus years since that draw. They had a memorable rematch in March that was one of 2008's best bouts, which Pacquiao won by a split decision.

Pacquiao is the unanimous pound-for-pound king in the Yahoo! Sports poll, while Marquez is a clear No. 2. And though there is no indication a third fight between them is likely any time soon – Pacquiao is fighting Ricky Hatton at super lightweight on May 2 – the boxing world clamors for a third fight between them.

"Who wouldn't want to see those guys fight again?" Diaz asked. "As a boxing fan, those were some of the best fights ever, the kind of fights you want to see over and over."

It's that kind of a fight that Diaz promises for Marquez on Saturday. Diaz is the natural lightweight, so he figures to have youth and size on his side.

Diaz is 25, 10 years Marquez's junior, and doesn't have the miles on him that Marquez does.

Marquez's astute trainer, Nacho Beristain, has no fear that his man is on the dark side of a wonderful career, but he expects Diaz to give Marquez the kind of test few men have been able to do.

Marquez is 49-4-1 with 36 knockouts, but he and Beristain have issues with at least two of the losses and the draw. He was disqualified in his pro debut and lost a 1999 bout with Freddie Norwood that, while close, wasn't particularly controversial.

But the Marquez camp has gained a reputation as a bunch of whiners in the last decade for complaining about decisions that don't go his way. He believes he won both fights against Pacquiao, as well as his 2006 fight with featherweight Chris John, an unknown star who fights Rocky Juarez in HBO's opener on Saturday.

John's victory appeared legitimate, while both Pacquiao fights were so close that no one could rightfully quibble with the outcome regardless of how they went.

Beristain, who also serves as Marquez's manager, made one of the boneheaded moves of the century in 2004 when he turned down an immediate rematch with Pacquiao. Pacquiao went on to fight Erik Morales instead and vaulted into superstar status as the result of their series of jaw-dropping bouts.

Marquez continued to be one of the game's elite fighters, but he always seemed second fiddle to someone else.

Marquez, of course, points the blame elsewhere: He blames promoters, other fighters and their managers, for not getting the fights he deserved.

"[Marco Antonio] Barrera, Morales, those guys, their promoter knew what would happen if they fought me, so they never did [back then]," Marquez said. "The same thing with Hamed. But I kept fighting and I kept winning and finally forced them to recognize me."

He finally got the crack at Barrera, the highly regarded Mexican icon, in 2007 and routed him in a bout that wasn't as close as the 116-111, 116-111 and 118-109 scores would indicate.

"No mater when they fought – first fight, 10th fight, 20th fight, now – the result would have been the same," Beristain said.

Beristain is confident that Marquez will get past Diaz, but he concedes Diaz poses plenty of problems. The future attorney's high punch output has grabbed Beristain's attention.

Marquez, though, sniffs at the thought that he's worried. He has plenty of respect for Diaz, but he hasn't lost an iota of belief in himself. More people recognize his many talents than they did 10 years ago, when he toiled in frustrating anonymity, but little else has changed.

"I just have to go out and keep doing my job and if I do that, the big fights will come," Marquez said. "No different than ever."