Middleweight Marco Antonio Rubio needs perfect fight to overcome recurring woe
By most standards, Marco Antonio Rubio has had a phenomenal boxing career.
He's won 59 of his 66 fights and has scored 51 knockouts. He's a consummate professional, always in shape, always ready to work, always respectful of the sport and his opponent.
In his last fight, Rubio won a WBC world title belt, accomplishing the dream of a lifetime.
"There was an overwhelming sense of happiness, joy and pride," he says of his April 5 knockout of Domenico Spada that earned him the interim WBC middleweight championship.
However, there is a major hole in his résumé that, frankly, may be impossible for him to fix.
Whenever he's stepped up the competition level in his career, he's come up short. Going all the way back to 2004, he was knocked out in just 33 seconds by Kofi Jantuah in a title eliminator in what was then the biggest fight of his life.
Later attempts to scale the big wall, bouts against Kassim Ouma, Kelly Pavlik and Julio Cesar Chavez, similarly ended badly for Rubio.
He lost a split decision to Ouma in 2006. He was stopped after nine one-sided rounds by Pavlik in a 2009 middleweight title bout. And he lost a wide decision to Chavez in 2012 in another crack at the middleweight crown.
On Saturday, he'll face perhaps the toughest test of all when he meets Gennady Golovkin in a title bout at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., that will serve as the main event of an HBO doubleheader.
Golovkin is one of the sport's hardest punchers and most celebrated fighters, and is in some sports books a minus-10,000 favorite. For those who don't understand betting, that means that in order to win $100, a gambler wanting to bet on Golovkin would have to risk $10,000.
Rubio has heard all about Golovkin's greatness and knows what he is in for.
"I've always said he's a complete fighter, very good," Rubio said. "But he's not invincible. There are some things we can take advantage of in that fight."
To many, that's like saying a 300-pounder coming out of a pizza party could outsprint Usain Bolt. Possible, perhaps, but it's incredibly unlikely.
Still, Rubio is undaunted. The fight is coming, he says, at the right time in his career. He's 34 now, fully experienced and understanding of what it takes to defeat someone of Golovkin's stature.
Rubio isn't a trash talker or a braggart, and he knows that in order to win, things will have to go just about perfectly for him.
He got the fight because many others weren't interested in taking it. Golovkin has been that devastating that some fighters aren't at all interested in facing him unless they're dramatically overpaid.
And though he holds the WBC interim belt, Rubio isn't under any illusions that it gives him any kind of an advantage. When he won the belt, Sergio Martinez held the regular WBC middleweight title and was preparing to defend it against Miguel Cotto.
Once Cotto defeated Martinez, it would have made sense for the WBC to simply get rid of the interim designation, but it doesn't work that way. So Rubio will walk to the ring Saturday as a champion and the belt will be at stake for Golovkin.
Rubio, though, understands the difference between a belt-holder and a champion.
"Today, the titles and being called a world champion is very different than it used to be," he said. "You can be a world champion but still not be considered the best in the world. I was proud to win that belt because it did signify how hard I've worked and how much I've sacrificed. It means a lot to me, but what means the most is being regarded as the best in the world.
"To be the best middleweight in the world, I know that I have to beat Golovkin. That's it. He's the best in the world and that is what I want more than any belt."
He finds himself in a similar situation to the one that Jhonny Gonzalez faced when he challenged Abner Mares for the WBC featherweight title in the same ring on Aug. 24, 2013.
Gonzalez entered the bout with 54 victories and 46 knockouts, but was a massive underdog. Few gave him a shot, but Gonzalez overcame the odds to knock Mares out in the first round.
It's proof to a guy like Rubio that it can be done, even if Golovkin is a vastly better fighter than Mares.
But Rubio is a smart, observant man and believes the timing is perfect.
"I've had a lot of fights and I've learned something in every one of them, from my victories and from my losses," he said. "Every fight is a lesson, and if you are open to learning, which I am, then you can learn and get better from each fight.
"It's why I say this fight is coming at the perfect time for me. Golovkin is an excellent fighter and everyone says so many good things about him. But I feel like I'm at a stage now where I not only know what I need to do, but I also believe that I can go out and do it."
If he does score the huge upset, then he can truly say he's had a phenomenal career and no one would argue.
