Mexican boxing superstar Juan Manuel Marquez is set announce his retirement after more than 20 years of active competition.
According to numerous reports, Marquez will retire after being one of Mexico's best boxers of the 2000s.
Marquez is probably best known for his four-fight rivalry against Manny Pacquiao, in which two of those fights headlined pay-per-views that had more than a million buys. After failing to defeat Pacquiao in his first three attempts (two losses and a draw), Marquez got his revenge in the fourth and final encounter when he knocked out Pacquiao towards the end of the sixth round.
Marquez has not fought since beating Mike Alvarado in 2014 to win the WBO International welterweight title. Marquez had been trying to secure a fight against Miguel Cotto, another boxer who has won a world title in four different weight classes. Negotiations had been taking place since last year, but the two sides could not agree to a weight.
There was interest from Marquez's side to still have the fight against Cotto in late 2017 after Cotto's upcoming fight against Yoshihiro Kamegai for the vacant WBO junior middleweight title. Marquez was set to compete in a fight soon, but his return was delayed as Marquez needed more time to train.
If this indeed is the end of Marquez's career, the 43-year-old will retire with a 56-7-1 record. Marquez has won world titles at featherweight, super featherweight, lightweight and junior welterweight.