Jack Welsh
www.ringsports.com

Juan Manuel Marquez enhanced his status as a premier featherweight, scoring two knockdowns over former champion Manuel Medina on his way to winning the IBF’s vacant crown on a seventh-round TKO in Top Rank’s main event before 4,400 fans at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas

For Marquez, 29, out of Mexico City. it was his second chance at a world title and he made it clear from the outset he wøuld not be denied in promoter Bob Arum’s “Night of Fury,” showcasing top Hispanic talent in three divisions on HBO’s pay-per-view telecast.

It was basically Marquez the puncher vs. Medina, 31, the sllck counter puncher from Tijuana, Mx. whose resume showed three reigns as IBF 126-pound king (1991,1998, 200l) and once as the WBC boss in 1995.

Marquez’s first chance came Sept.11, 1999 against Fred Norwood, then the unbeaten WBA champ, in the same venue he would ultimately face Medina.

Though both fighters scored knockdøwns, Marquez’s came late in round nine, giving the crowd an idea he
deserved the decision.The judges thought not on scores of 114-112, 115-111, and 117-112.

It was a hard lesson the former NABF and USBA champion learned well and he made it clear early
there would be no repeat against Medina, the latter’s vast skills not withstanding.

After a ‘feel ‘em out’ first round, Marquez gave Medina an early message. Firing at midring, Marquez caught Medina with a snapping left, right, left that dropped the former champion to his knees. Medina shook his head and beat referee Robert Byrd’s count, using his two-inch reach advantage at 66 1/2 in trying to keep Marquez at bay.

Medina was on his bicycle but Marquez was still in his face, throwing combinations, laced with solid uppercuts.The ex-champ’s tenacity served him well enough that his sttck-and-move style was good for two combinations before the bell.

Medina’s heart under fire is legend on both sides of the border and that authenticity showed when he came back to win the third round in an off-balance flurry of combinations to the head and body that surprised Marquez.

Marquez regained control, dictating the tempo against an adversary who refused to quit despite sponging up heavy combinations to the head and body in the fourth round.

It was clear Medina needed a knockout he wasn’t going to get as Marquez’s shots began to snap the latter’s head back in the fifth round.

Marquez got a mild surprise in round six when the bruised Medina, with his right eye closing. took several right-handed shots and then came firing back with looping combinations to win the round on two judges’ scorecards.

It was the last round Medina would get in what became an abbreviated scheduled 12-rounder.

Marquez, determined there would be no near-miss this trip, backed the tiring Medina into the ropes with stinging combinations and then sent him slowly to the canvas with a long left and short right.

Medina wobbled erect but the referee, having checked with ringside Dr.Margaret Goodman, halted the action at 1:18 of the seventh round.

Judges Jerry Roth and Paul Smith had’ it 59-54 while Stu Winston saw it 58-55, all for the winner. Boxing Update’s tab was 59-54, Marquez,
Marquez, improving to 40-2, 32 KOs, earned $50,000 while Medina, slipping tø 60-13,27 KOs, collected $125,000.

However, Marquez, who has scored nine kayoes in10 wins since losing to Norwood, knows mega-bucks fights may be just around the corner.

“I should have been champion a long time ago, considering I turned pro in ‘93. it’s hard to believe I had my first fight in Las Vegas in ‘94. Medina isn’t easy to fight, a very awkward style but he is a great champion with a great heart,” Marquez reflected on what he considers the “greatest win of my career.”

“I feel I’m the greatest featherweight in the world and I’m willing to fight anybody to prove it. This weight class has some exceptional talent out there with guys like Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Paulie Ayala, and Naseem Hamed. Bring ‘em on.”

EL SALVADOR PRESIDENT SEES HERNANDEZ WIN

Carlos Hernandez’s Latino admirers long have called him “Famous”, and now he really is the way he machine-gunned David Santos with wicked body shots to set up an eighth round TKO in winning the IBF’s
vacant super featherweight crown in the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

It was the 31-year-old Hernandez’s third bid to become a world champion in his 12th season as a pro but he was fighting for much more than a title.

Born in Los Angeles of El Salvadorian parents, Hermandez has never forgotten his heritage. And he proven it big time Sept.15, 2001when he TKO’d Juan Macias in five rounds in San Salvador, the capital of the nation that had been ravaged earlier by a flood and earthquake. Headed up by Hernandez, the fighters on the card made a sizable donation of their purses to the victims.

Hernandez not only is El Salvador’s first world boxing champion, but a pure humanitarian who is beloved for his charity across this poverty-stricken Central American country with a six million population.

Not only five buses of L.A.-based El Salvadorians came to see their hero fight, but ringside celebrities included President Francisco Flores from San Salvador, plus Panama”s Roberto Duran and Nicaragua’s Alexis Arguello, two of Central America’s greatest ring legends.

“I can hardly believe I’m a champion, and to have President Flores of El Salvador sitting at ringside watching me is impossible to believe. Having the title is exciting. But I know I had 6 million people in my heart motivating me. They really deserve my help,” said Hernandez, holding his belt and stifling the tears.

Hernandez,129.5, picking up $41,000 after raising his credentials to 38-3-1, 24 KOs, personally felt he atoned for the two WBC title fights that got away ----losing to Genaro Hernandez in 1997 and Floyd Mayweather, Jr., in 2001, both 12-round decisions.

Most Hispanics in the lighter classes are prone to work off a jab, but for Hernandez, it was dig to the body with endless combinations that left Santos unabled to get untracked with his punching rhythm.

Santos, 128.5 standing 5’8” but looking taller, did enough with his jab to win the first two rounds on two judges’ cards but Hernamdez’s body belts had Santos backing up or covering up with his gloves when the enemy went upstars in the third and fourth rounds. Santos was off balance when he went down in the latter round but referee Tony Weeks ruled the fall a ‘knockdown.

Santos, out of St.Petersburgh, Fl., was reasonably competitive with some combinations of his own in the sixth round, the last round he would win.

Santos managed to counter some of the pressuring Hernandez’s heavy body bangs but not
enough to sway the judges.
Point-wise, Santos was still in the hunt and punching back when the action was abbreviated in the eighth round as the underdog suffered a deep cut over his right eye from an accidental butt and referee Tony Weeks stopped the bout at 2:52.

Santos, earning $35,000 as his record dipped to 42-6,27 KOs, regrets losing on a butt when he appeared to be finding the range, and complained “this Hernandez is tough and awkward, and very hard to fight.”

COTTO PASSES BIG TEST, STOPS BAZAN IN 11TH

Miguel Angel Cotto took another step up toward the bigger boys in the 140-pound class when he had too much power and pressure for ex-chmpion Cesar Bezan, winning the WBC’s vacant International super lightweight title on a TKO 16 seconds into the 11th round.

Cotto, 140, Caguas, P.R., was facing his most experienced oppønent as a rising pro in Bazan, 139, Mexico City, Mx., but the latter’s four-inch edge at six-foot and 11-inch margin with a 78-inch reach, was not a factor as expected.

Going in, the 22-year-old Puerto Rican boxer-puncher was ranked No.11with the WBC and No.13 by the WBA, but the Top Ten of both organizations should beckon eagerly now that Cotto has moved to 14-0,11KOs. Bazan, who lost his WBC lightweight title to Stevie Johnson in1999, begrudingly saw his ledger dip to 39-6-1, 27.

Bazan, 28, with more than four times the experience of Cotto, started throwing that right hand over and down from the outset but Cotto was unflappable, stepping in early in the first round to deck Bazan with a left hook.The rugged Mexican was so irritated he got caught, he pounded his gloves on the canvas in rising.

Cotto, who likes to work off the jab with his gloves high, got the message early that Bazan had come to fight, knowing being a spoiler against this diamond-in-the-rough is the quickest way to larger purses.

Bazan surprised Cotto in the fifth round with jabs, hooks, and uppercuts. Nobody has doubted the quality of Cotto’s chin since he came out of the 2000 Sydney Olympics and nobody was going to change their mind after this heated exercise. And it was the only round Bazan would win despite his game effort.

Cotto, throwing three and four-punch salvos, was in command moving through the middle rounds but Bazan was always there trying to work Cotto into the ropes with long overhand rights and uppercuts. Yet the way the taller fighter’s face was swellng and bruising up, a hard price was being paid.

The was no quit in Bazan, a solid bargain for that $10,000 purse and the effort he gave as a tester of Top
Rank’s newest star of tomorrow.

The 10th round was the beginning of the end as Cotto moved the well-hammered Bazan around the ring with extended combinations. At the bell, the Nevada Commission’s ringside physician told referee
Toby Gibson “if there is as much as one combinations by Cotto, stop it.”

Round 11, Gibson was ready. Cotto rushed out with a left-right-left. Bazan the catcher didn’t have time to totter.The referee did his job.....all over with just 16 seconds spent.