A Must Win: Marquez vs. Jandaeng
 By Julian Kasdin (Aug 4, 2006)
This Saturday Juan Manuel Marquez, 44-3-1 (33), will square off against Terdsak Jandaeng, 24-1 (15), in what is a must win situation for Marquez. Not only must Marquez win, but he must win impressively. Juan Manuel is an elite fighter, but lately he has been one of the invisible men of the boxing world. This is his chance to get back into the good graces of the boxing public by winning convincingly against a relative unknown.
Juan Manuel Marquez is most remembered right now for his stirring battle against Manny Pacquiao. After getting knocked down three times in the first round of their fight Marquez would get up and box beautifully for three rounds
eventually earning a draw. Since then Marquez has missed the opportunity for a rematch with Pacquiao, and has seen his star plummet as Manny’s has risen to new heights. Marquez was dealt another blow when he recently lost his title to Chris John in the Philippines via unanimous decision. He needs this win, and he doesn’t just need this win he needs this win to be big.
Jandaeng is an unknown, and he doesn’t need to do anymore in this fight than be competitive. Yes he is fighting to win and yes nothing would improve his career more than a win over Marquez, but Jandaeng only needs to be competitive and make Marquez look bad in order to impress the boxing public. Since losing to Joan Guzman in 2005 Jandaeng has won six straight but against soft competition. I don’t know much about Jandaeng, and honestly I don’t know what to expect from him. I don’t know his style of fighting, but I do know he has lost to the only elite fighter he has ever faced and there is really no reason to think he will beat Marquez.
To an extent Marquez winning is almost a forgone conclusion, but boxing is the theater of the unexpected and that is why we fight the fights. By all means JMM should win this Saturday. Not only should he win, but he should be able to win easily. This will probably be one of the most motivated versions of Juan Manuel Marquez we have ever seen, and it is because of this that ‘Dinamita’ will probably make the fight. While Marquez will most likely win the important thing is not for him to win, but to win impressively. If he doesn’t win impressively then his position as one of the sport’s name fighters becomes near untenable.
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