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Juan Manuel Marquez will return to the ring on either July 21 or 28 in Mexico, in a fight promoted by Zanfer, as his July 14 date at Cowboys Stadium has been officially scrapped.
BoxingScene.com has quotes from Bob Arum on why the fight fell through, and it's really pretty simple: Marquez wanted big money to fight someone like Mercito Gesta, who has no name value in the States yet, in a fight that most likely would have badly bombed at the massive football stadium and on pay-per-view. Because Top Rank didn't have a southpaw for him -- negotiations for a fight with Zab Judah fell apart when Judah felt lowballed -- they tried to offer him Brandon Rios and Erik Morales.
Marquez, though, is firm about fighting a southpaw in July, as he is confident he'll be landing a fourth fight with Manny Pacquiao late this year. So Arum has bailed on the Marquez business, at least for now, and it's hard to blame him.
It's two sides doing what they feel they have to do, basically. Marquez believes he must face a southpaw next. Top Rank does not have one that they feel is going to bring a return on a large investment in the type of purse that Marquez wants for a fight.
And so, we'll have Marquez fighting in Mexico for the third time in four fights, after not fighting in his native country since 1994, until returning last summer against Likar Ramos.
Most likely he's not going to face the sort of southpaw that will really prepare him for Pacquiao anyway, and though the tactic does make all the sense in the world on paper, one wonders if there's really a lot to gain for the 38-year-old Marquez by fighting, say, Cesar Cuenca or the like.
With Marquez out of the July 14 date, HBO will feature Amir Khan vs Danny Garcia that night, with Seth Mitchell facing Johnathon Banks in the co-feature. Pacquiao has to get by Timothy Bradley on June 9 to ensure that Marquez even has a shot at facing him this year, as a loss to Bradley would likely lead to a rematch in November.