LAS VEGAS -- WBO and WBA lightweight (135 pounds) champion Juan Manuel Marquez (pictured above, at left) and Juan Diaz (above, at right) will be the main event of Saturday night's Golden Boy Promotions' HBO pay-per-view card, with six of the nine overall fights being televised from the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.
The 36-year-old Marquez (50-5-1, 37 knockouts) of Mexico and the 26-year-old Diaz (35-3, 17 KOs) of Houston are expected to enter the ring sometime after 11 p.m. Eastern Time for a rematch of their February 2009 Fight of The Year won by Marquez via ninth-round knockout.
Marquez, who weighed in at 133.5 pounds to Diaz's 135, hails from Mexico City and is among the foreign fighters who represent eight different countries. Marquez will earn $1 million to Diaz's $540,000 for their 12-rounder.
The pay-per-view portion of the telecast will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, with a 10-round lightweight matchup between Venezuelan-born and Tokyo resident Jorge Linares (28-1, 18 KOs), a former two-time world champion and former Olympic silver medalist Rocky Juarez (28-6-1, 20 KOs) of Houston.
Juarez will earn $45,000 and weighed in at 132, a half pound less than Linares, who will make $30,000.
Following Linares-Juarez will be a 10-round junior welterweight (140 pounds) clash of former world titlists between Robert Guerrero (26-1-1, 18 KOs) of Gilroy, Calif., and former Cuban Olympic gold medalist Joel Casamayor (37-4-1, 22 KOs). Guerrero tipped the scales at 138.5, a half pound more than Casamayor, who will pocket $50,000 to Guerrero's $75,000.
The last bout before Marquez-Diaz will be a WBO middleweight (160 pounds) 12-rounder featuring Brooklyn's Daniel Jacobs (20-0, 17 KOs) against Russia's Dmitry Pirog (16-0, 13 KOs), who weighed 159 and 160 respectively. Jacobs (pictured below, at left) will earn $200,000, but the purse of Pirog (pictured at far right) is not known.
Before the main broadcast begins, there will be a free one-hour preview that will begin with an IBF super middleweight (168 pounds) title eliminator between Sakio Bika (28-3-2, 19 KOs) of Australia and Jean Paul Mendy (28-0-1, 16 KOs) of France.
Bika will make $18,000 to Mendy's $12,000, with the winner potentially earning a mandatory shot at the victor of an Oct. 15 fight between IBF king Lucian Bute (26-0, 12 KOs) and Jesse Brinkley (35-5, 22 KOs).
The preview will also include 18-year-old junior welterweight sensation Frankie Gomez (4-0, four KOs), of Los Angeles in a six-rounder against Minnesota's Ricardo Calzada (2-2) of Las Vegas, who will make $6,000 and $4,000, respectively.
The first non-televised match of the day will be an afternoon heavyweight encounter between Seth Mitchell (17-0-1, 11 KOs), of Brandywine, Md., and Philadelphia southpaw Derek Bryant (20-5-1, 17 KOs), who will bring home $7,000 and $5,000, respectively.
Next up will be English super middleweight George Groves (9-0, seven KOs) and Mexico's Alfredo Contreras (11-7-1, five KOs). In a lightweight swing bout, Mexico City's Juan Manuel Montiel (5-3-1, one KO) meets New York's Mike Peralta (4-5, one KO).
Groves will make $5,000 to Contreras' $4,000, and Montiel will earn $2,500 to Peralta's $1,200.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
I can't believe the relatively paltry purses that Marquez and Diaz are receiving for this fight. Marquez certainly deserves more than $1 million and Diaz, after his last performance against Marquez--ought to be making at least $1 million for this fight. Golden Boy is going to make a lot of money off of this fight--off the entire fight card in fact. I bet the entire purse paid won't exceed $2 million dollars for all the fights but you just know that GBP will probably make at least $20 million tomorrow night.
But hey! Let's believe Oscar De la Hoya when he says the Diaz/Marquez fight is a PPV fight because it's so expensive to put on these types of fights and/or fight cards. Uh-huh. Yeah. We believe you.