Marquez, Raul

Raúl Marquez was born on August 28, 1971 in the town of Valle Hermoso , Tamaulipas , Mexico . At the age of five in 1976, the family moved permanently to the United States , where he began to seriously engage in boxing.

Amateur career

For the first time declared itself in 1987, winning the American Junior Olympics.

In 1989, he won the US amateur championship in the standings of the welterweight division, entered the main team of the US national team and visited the World Championships in Moscow , from where he brought the bronze dignity award - at the semi-finals stage with a score of 7:13 he was defeated by Romanian Franchiska Vashtag . Took part in a match meeting with the USSR national team in Atlantic City, beating the Soviet boxer Talgat Berdibekov

In 1990, at the AIBA Challenge tournament, he again met with Franchisch Vashtag and lost to him again. He played at the Goodwill Games in Seattle , where he became a silver medalist - in the semifinals he defeated the Soviet boxer Vladimir Ereshchenko , but in the decisive final match he again lost to Romanian Vastagu.

In 1991, he won the championship in the United States in the standings of the first medium weight. Took part in match meetings with teams of the USSR and Cuba, losing to Israel Hakobkohyan and Juan Carlos Lemus, respectively.

Thanks to a series of successful performances, he won the right to defend the country's honor at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona - in the category up to 71 kg, he successfully passed the first two rivals in the tournament grid, but then lost to the Netherlands representative Orhan Delibash ^[1] in the quarter finals.

Professional career

Soon after the end of the Olympics, Marquez left the location of the US team and in October 1992, successfully made his debut at the professional level. He won 25 victories over five years without suffering a single defeat, including winning the USBA middleweight championship.

Rising in the rankings, in 1997, became the official contender for the vacant world title according to the International Boxing Federation (IBF). He defeated another challenger Anthony Stevens by technical knockout in the ninth round and took the championship belt. Subsequently, he managed to defend this title twice, after which, during the third defense, he lost it to Mexican Luis Ramon Campas ^[2] .

Having won two rating fights, in July 1999, Marquez met with undefeated American IBF middleweight champion Fernando Vargas , however, was unable to offer him serious resistance and was defeated by TKO in the eleventh round ^[3] .

In February 2003, he boxed with another eminent American Shane Mosley - the fight was stopped in the third round and was declared invalid due to an unintentional head-to-head collision and an opened strong cut.

In June 2004, he entered the ring against undefeated Jermain Taylor at the time - at stake was the title of the champion of Continental America Middleweight Championship according to the World Boxing Council (WBC). Taylor was significantly superior to the opponent in the number and quality of strikes, boxing in the middle distance. Marquez was inferior in his height and speed, and could not close the distance. At the end of the 9th round, Taylor ran several series of hooks into his head. Marquez tried to evade them, but could not stand the onslaught and sank to the floor. He rose to the score of 3. After the end of the account, the gong sounded. Coach Marquez told the referee about the refusal to continue the fight. Taylor won by TKO.

Having won a few more fights, in June 2008, Raúl Marquez met with the undefeated Dominican Giovanni Lorenzo - the winner of this confrontation was to become the official contender for the IBF Middleweight Championship. The boxers overcame the entire distance in 12 rounds, and as a result, the judges gave the victory to Marquez by a unanimous decision with the same score of 114-113 ^[4] .

Having received the status of the official challenger, a few months later, Marquez went to Germany to box with the current IBF champion Arthur Abraham , for whom this defense was already the eighth in a row. Abraham won ahead of schedule due to the refusal to continue the fight in the sixth round and retained the championship belt. Makres, who was 37 years old at the time, decided to end his career as a professional boxer after this defeat ^[5] .

• Raul Marquez (Eng.) - statistics of professional fights on the site BoxRec
• Raúl Marquez - Olympic statistics on Sports-Reference.com (English)