MANILA, Philippines - The year that just passed was a year like no other for Juan Manuel Marquez. He got the win that he always wanted, and got it the way he always wanted.
Problem is he still has to decide whether he’d ever fight again.
Marquez, who’s turning 40 on Aug. 23, still can’t stop talking about his smashing win over Manny Pacquiao last Dec. 8 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
It was the fourth fight between the two great champions, and the Mexican who drew and lost twice to Pacquiao since 2004, said it was “the biggest fight of my life.”
It proved to be the biggest win of his life.
“It was against a great fighter, a great character, I’m talking about Manny Pacquiao,” Marquez, enjoying the holidays with his family in Mexico, told www.boxingscene.com.
“I demonstrated who was the best in this fight and in our previous meetings where I had been robbed,” added Marquez.
Marquez floored Pacquiao for the first time with a looping right to the side of the head in the third round, but hit the canvas himself in the fifth.
Then in the sixth, Marquez found the opening he couldn’t find in 36 previous rounds with Pacquiao, and landed a crunching right straight with just a second left in the round.
Pacquiao went down with no chance of getting up, and the fight is over.
“I won as I should have, with a knockout, and that was the only way to do it,” said Marquez, who last April also won the WBO junior-welterweight crown.
After the victory, people danced in the streets of Mexico, and upon his return from Las Vegas, Marquez was paraded like he had the gold Jules Rimet Cup in his hands.
It was like no other for the Mexican counterpuncher.
As the New Year comes in, Marquez will have to sit down with his family and team members whether he would or should fight again.
Already there are talks of a fifth fight between him and Pacquiao.
If it pushes through, Marquez will be guaranteed a purse no other Mexican fighter had ever earned in a single fight.
But he wants to enjoy the moment with his family first.
“I want to enjoy my family, to be with them, to give them the time that they deserve,” he said even before he decides on his next move.
Marquez added that his wife has the final say.
That’s what men always say.