Those are good, but this is historic

“I know I will have seen two of the greatest Mexican warriors in the history of boxing. No matter what happens, nobody can take that away from me.” – Gary Shaw, Feb. 14, 2008

It’s rarely a good idea to search for perspective in a promoter’s words. Fight promotion is about hyperbole and the moment. It doesn’t age well. But this time, promoter Gary Shaw accurately captured boxing aficionados’ sentiments about what’s coming.

Saturday night at Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez will fight one more time for Vazquez’s WBC super bantamweight title. It will be the third time they’ve battled in 11 months. It’s a fight that belongs on pay-per-view. Blessedly enough, though, it will be on Showtime.

The Vazquez-Marquez series is tied, 1-1. Marquez won their first fight in March by seventh-round TKO. In August, Vazquez gained his vengeance by stopping Marquez in Round 6.

The conclusion of their trilogy is more than good theater. It is a historic happening in our sport.

So went my reasoning. There’s not enough time or money to be ringside for every major event. At the end of 2007, I knew there would be a rematch between Kelly Pavlik and Jermain Taylor either just before or just after Vazquez-Marquez III. I also assumed a Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez rematch would happen in March.

I chose Vazquez-Marquez. Pavlik-Taylor II was an excellent scrap. Pacquiao-Marquez II will be among the year’s best fights. But Vazquez-Marquez III is the final match in a trilogy boxing will be using as a standard in 2033.

Like the Barrera-Morales trilogy? Perhaps. Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales were great prizefighters who in their frenetic moments reduced one another to brawlers. Both men will be remembered for the fistic virtuosity they showed against other opponents. But when aficionados revisit the Barrera-Morales fights in 25 years, they’ll be more impressed by these matches’ violence and spite than their class.

Conversely, when aficionados revisit the Vazquez-Marquez trilogy, they’ll see a poetic and enduring mixture of brutality and professionalism. They will see two men who fought without personal animosity. And contrary to the noise that surrounds combat sports of all kinds, professional rivalries – not lunatic brawls – are what hold up best over time.

But let that dissuade no sadist. Vazquez-Marquez III will be filled with violence. Prizefighting, after all, is the art of hurting another man – hurting him to impress scorekeepers, hurting him to take his consciousness or hurting him to keep him from hurting you.

Does Israel Vazquez know this? You bet.

“The only thing that I know for sure is that I’m going to try my best to hurt him round after round, so I’m able to obtain the victory. It’s my main concern, trying to hurt him, round by round.” That’s what Vazquez said on his Valentine’s Day conference call with Marquez and Shaw.

That is Vazquez’s style. Every combination concludes with a punch intended to bring pain to his opponent. There are no point-harvesting flurries from Vazquez – no round-stealing shoe shines in the last 10 seconds.

But there is a lot of craft. In their first fight, Vazquez exploited Marquez’s lazy left hook creatively. Rather than slipping the punch, Vazquez leaned forward and caught it on the back of his neck. Then he pinned Marquez’s left arm with his right glove, pulled Marquez forward and dropped him with a left uppercut.

In the second fight, Vazquez landed a combination that came right from the pages of Joe Frazier’s “Box Like the Pros.” He saw Marquez’s right arm was low. He tapped it with a left hook to the body. He lifted Marquez’s head with a right uppercut. Then he separated Marquez from his senses with a short left hook.

Anyone now want to go back and revisit Vazquez-Marquez I and II? Well, here’s some good news. Showtime’s official website, Sho.com, has an entire page dedicated to the Vazquez-Marquez trilogy. It features streaming video of Vazquez and Marquez’s first 13 rounds. It’s definitely worth the visit.

Also included on the page are three documentary-style “All Access” pieces that treat Vazquez’s and Marquez’s preparations. Of all the characters quoted in these pieces, no one is more interesting than Marquez’s legendary trainer Nacho Beristain.

“If he obeys, we are going to win,” says Beristain about Marquez. Notice that Beristain didn’t say “if he fights well” or “if Rafael follows our plan.” Instead Beristain chose the Spanish verb “obedecer (to obey).”

Such is Beristain. He has trained Marquez since before Marquez’s 15th birthday, and he’s a stern teacher. In November, he came to Tucson with Rafael’s older brother, Juan Manuel, and proved to be a polite, open and serious man.

Asked what Rafael Marquez must do differently this time, Beristain was vehement. He must not try to slug with Vazquez. He must not try to match left hooks with Vazquez. He must stay tall and throw his right cross.

There’s more to that answer than meets the eye. Beristain’s gym is in Mexico City. It has produced 16 world champions. But when you think of the Mexican fighting style, who comes first to mind? Julio Cesar Chavez – a left-hook slugger from the northern state of Sinaloa. Beristain trains his fighters to be the antithesis of Chavez and his face-first style.

Beristain had to have been offended when his prodigy was felled by a Vazquez left uppercut in the first fight and a left hook in the second. Saturday’s match will be as much a challenge to the style Beristain teaches as a challenge to Marquez’s talent.

But Marquez’s talent should be the difference. Israel Vazquez is a two-time world champion. Rafael Marquez, however, might be a once-in-a-generation talent. If he is that, he’ll surgically open the scar tissue over Vazquez’s eyes. I believe he can, so I’ll take Marquez: KO-8.

But if the bell rings to start Round 9, Vazquez may be impossible to beat.