MEXICO CITY, MEXICO — Before his fellow countrymen, Juan Manuel Marquez kept his hopes for a fourth fight with Manny Pacquiao alive with a dominant unanimous decision win over an outclassed Serhiy Fedchenko.
The men split the opening two rounds. Marquez’s left hooks gave him a small advantage in the first while Fedchenko’s right hand counters held the advantage in the second. Marquez shrewdly adjusted to Fedchenko’s movement by focusing downstairs with raking left and right hooks to the body. By the fourth, Marquez was tripling the left hook to the body.
Marquez’s deadly left uppercut became a focal point of his offense in the fifth. Fedchenko’s attempts to get lucky in exchanges were stifled by Marquez’s famed accuracy. A left uppercut had Fedchenko stumbling backwards. The seventh showcased the creativity of Marquez’s offense as he caught Fedchenko flush with a right uppercut-right hook combination.
After a slow ninth round, Marquez pressed hard in the championship rounds for a knockout. He forced Fedchenko into survival mode late in the 10th after a succession of heavy overhand and straight rights. Marquez included body punches to that arsenal in the 11th and Fedchenko was given a hard warning for his continued holding. Although Marquez would stun his opponent regularly with hooks in the 12th, the veteran Fedchenko held on enough to prevent the stoppage.
The scorecards were wide for Marquez at 119-109 and 118-110 twice, giving him the interim WBO light welterweight title. Per Top Rank, Marquez is now in place for a possible summer matchup with either Brandon Rios or Mike Alvarado with a Pacquiao bout for the fall.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 