Juan Manuel Lopez-Rafael Marquez set for Nov. 6

A new date is in place for the featherweight clash between Juan Manuel Lopez and Rafael Marquez. The two will meet on November 6, still at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The fight was originally scheduled for September 18, one of the year's most highly-anticipated fights for diehard fans in particular. But Marquez (39-5, 35 KO) injured his thumb recently. Reports out of Puerto Rico had the fight being targeted for October 23 or 30, but Marquez said shortly after that he'd heard November 6, and today Top Rank made the announcement.

Lopez (29-0, 26 KO) will be making the second defense of the WBO featherweight belt he won in January from Steven Luevano. His first defense came on July 10, when he stopped Bernabe Concepcion in the second round. Marquez, 35, moved to featherweight in 2009 and has had just two fights at the weight. He disposed of rival Israel Vazquez in the third round on May 22 and hasn't had a truly tough fight since March 2008, when he waged his third consecutive war with Vazquez. Marquez showed energy, power, accuracy and plenty of life left in May against Vazquez, but this will be the real test to see where he's at. Lopez, 27, is strong and in his prime.

The Nov. 6 date means that barring some sort of miracle where all three fights wind up on the same bill in Vegas, Showtime's four-man bantamweight tournament will need to find a new target date. The early talk for the bill (featuring Yonnhy Perez, Joseph Agbeko, Vic Darchinyan and Abner Mares) was that they were looking at Nov. 6 and Dec. 18. There's also a chance that Dec. 18 will now have a fight between Jean Pascal and Bernard Hopkins on HBO. Nov. 20 may be an open weekend if HBO's desired rematch between Sergio Martinez and Paul Williams falls through, but otherwise the November/December slate is set with big fights. In the end, it may be best off to wait until January for the bantamweight tourney.

An Aside: Outside of his comeback tune-up in Mexico in '09, Marquez has fought just two opponents since May 28, 2005, those two men being Silence Mabuza and Israel Vazquez.