Lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez, one of the top fighters in the world, has yearned for a third fight with pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao for three years.
They have fought to two controversial decisions: They drew in a 2004 featherweight title fight, and Pacquiao won a hotly contested split decision in their 2008 rematch for the junior lightweight championship. After three years of chasing Pacquiao since their last meeting, Marquez finally landed the fight.
They are scheduled to meet at a catchweight of 144 pounds for Pacquiao's welterweight title on Nov. 12 on pay-per-view at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It's everything Marquez -- who will make a minimum of $5 million -- has wanted.
Yet Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KOs) has put himself in harm's way by taking a tuneup fight, knowing that a loss or major injury would shatter his dream.
He will face 25-year-old Likar Ramos (24-3, 18 KOs) of Colombia in a 10-rounder at 140 pounds at the Plaza de Toros bullring in Cancun, Mexico, on Saturday night.
"It is important for me that he is a left-hander, like Pacquiao, and this fight will give me the work I need to be ready for November," Marquez told ESPN.com through translator Ricardo Jimenez of Top Rank.
Ramos briefly held an interim junior lightweight title, losing it in his first defense when Jorge Solis knocked him out in the seventh round in February 2010. Ramos has won three in a row since, including one at 140 pounds.
The fight will headline a three-bout broadcast that will be will streamed live in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada on Top Rank's website, www.toprank.tv, beginning at 9 p.m. ET.
Also scheduled to be shown: flyweight titlist Roman Gonzalez (28-0, 23 KOs) defending against Omar Salado (22-3-2, 13 KOs), and former bantamweight and junior featherweight champion Rafael Marquez (39-6, 35 KOs) -- Juan Manuel's younger brother -- facing Eduardo Becerril (12-7-2, 4 KOs) in a featherweight fight. Rafael Marquez will be fighting for the first time since suffering a shoulder injury in an eight-round TKO loss to then-featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Lopez on Nov. 6.
Juan Manuel Marquez, 37, is also coming off a long layoff, caused in part by the long process of working out his promotional situation with Golden Boy (whom he has parted ways with) before he could accept an offer from Top Rank to fight Pacquiao.
Marquez hasn't fought since Nov. 27, when he survived a hard knockdown in the third round but rallied to defend the lightweight title by stopping Michael Katsidis in the ninth round.
Besides wanting work against a southpaw, Marquez said he took the fight with Ramos because he didn't want to go into a fight with Pacquiao coming off a year of inactivity.
"I need the activity," said Marquez, a three-division champion. "Every fighter needs to be active and busy. I just felt I needed a fight. I know there are risks involved. But I knew I needed to take this fight to be OK for November. Of course, I understand the risk, but in every fight there is a risk.
"Anytime you go in the ring, there is risk. Anything can happen. But we are intelligent, and I have prepared well for this guy. I just felt like I needed a fight so I could be at my best for Pacquiao."
The fight with Ramos is also a homecoming for Marquez, who, although popular in Mexico, has fought almost all of his career in the United States -- especially in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
He hasn't fought in Mexico in nearly 17 years. The last time was in October 1994, when Marquez -- in just his seventh professional fight -- won a four-round decision against Israel Flores.
"It was very important to me to fight again in Mexico in front of my people," Marquez said. "It's been 17 years. That is a long time. So I am very happy to be here fighting again. We wanted to have the fight in Mexico City [where Marquez is from], but we couldn't do it. It was a better opportunity in Cancun. But I am just happy to be fighting again in Mexico."
He will also have the company of his little brother on the card. The Marquez brothers haven't shared a card since they were on a Showtime telecast in 2006.
Juan Manuel won a vacant interim featherweight belt by knocking out Terdsak Jandaeng in the seventh round, while Rafael stopped Silence Mabuza in defense of his bantamweight title on the undercard.
"It's been a while since we have fought together on the same card, and it is important to both of us," Juan Manuel said. "So why not do it when we are here in Mexico, which makes it even bigger?"
In Marquez's only fight above the 135-pound weight limit, he lost a lopsided decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a 2009 welterweight fight. Marquez fought at a career-high 142 pounds.
Instead of moving above junior welterweight to fight Ramos, Marquez said he wanted to get comfortable at 140 before going higher for the fall fight with Pacquiao.
"I felt I needed to do a fight at 140 pounds first," Marquez said. "I wanted to be smart about things before the fight with Pacquiao. I want to see how my body feels at 140 and then 144. One step at a time.
"I'm very excited and happy to get the fight with Pacquiao. It's been a long time that I have wanted this fight. But it is important for me to do well on Saturday night and to show people that I am ready for November."
Pacquiao-Marquez tour
While Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is still weighing proposals from HBO and Showtime as he decides which company will handle the Nov. 12 Pacquiao-Marquez III pay-per-view, he is making plans for the most elaborate promotional tour he has ever staged.
Arum said the four-city international press tour will kick off Sept. 3 in Manila, where he believes Pacquiao -- the national icon of the Philippines -- can draw a crowd of 500,000.
"We're doing it in a big public park," Arum said. "We have people on the ground making the arrangements for it. It is going to be spectacular."
Sept. 4 falls on a Sunday, and Arum said he is attempting to arrange for the Archbishop of the Philippines to give Holy Communion to Pacquiao vs Marquez.
Arum said the tour would then travel to New York for a press conference on Sept. 6, and then another the next day in Los Angeles.
"Then, late Thursday afternoon we'll fly to Mexico City and do a press conference on Friday in a big square in the city," Arum said. "We think we can get 50,000 to come out. I'd like to get the president of Mexico to speak at that press conference. I'm doing this so elaborately because it makes a statement that Pacquiao is a worldwide figure, therefore you do it worldwide. It's the appropriate thing to do."
Arum said that in addition to lining up sponsors for the fight, Top Rank also has sponsors coming on board just for the press tour -- an unprecedented move.
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