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Juan Manuel Marquez unanimously outpointed Juan Diaz on Saturday night, picking apart his younger opponent to retain the WBA and WBO lightweight titles.
Marquez captivated the crowd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center with precise punching and slick defense in a rematch that was nearly as entertaining as the fighters' thrilling first meeting, which Marquez won on a ninth-round stoppage in February 2009.
Marquez (51-5-1, 37 KOs), who turns 37 next month, further erased memories of his one-sided loss to the larger Floyd Mayweather Jr. last September by dominating another opponent closer to his own size.
"The first one was difficult, and so was this one," Marquez said. "He's a very good boxer. Like every true Mexican warrior, we both fought with all of our hearts and left it all in the ring."
Marquez reiterated his call for a third fight with Pacquiao, believing he's the only fighter outside of Mayweather who can worry the Filipino congressman. Their first two meetings resulted in a draw in 2004 and a split-decision loss for Marquez in 2008.
"It's good for all fight fans," Marquez said. "The Mexicans, the Filipinos, everyone wants to see it. That's the most important fight to me now. I'll be ready for November, and hopefully Pacquiao will take the fight."
"I fought the best fight I could," Diaz said. "We were trading punches. We fought in, we fought out. I didn't stand in front of him. I wanted to get in there and then get out, but it was hard, and I got hit with a couple of good shots. ... I did the best I could. I followed the game plan, worked off my jab, but he's a great fighter. He was the better man."
Judge Jerry Roth favored Marquez 116-112, while Glenn Trowbridge scored it 118-110 and Patricia Morse Jarman had it 117-111.
Marquez landed 288 punches to Diaz's 155, outlanding Diaz in every round, according to CompuBox's statistics. Marquez connected with nearly 50 percent of his power punches, landing 168 to Diaz's 74.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," Diaz said. "I'm going to consider all the facts. I'm going to take the LSAT, and that's another fact. I've been fighting for 10 years, longer than a lot of fighters, so I'm just going to have to figure it out."
On the stacked undercard, unheralded Russian middleweight Dmitry Pirog stopped Daniel Jacobs with a crushing overhand right to win the vacant WBO title. Robert Guerrero comfortably outpointed Cuban veteran Joel Casamayor, and Jorge Linares easily beat Rocky Juarez.
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