Marquez: Damaged goods?

Thursday, Dec. 19, 2002 | 9:01 a.m.

Raul Marquez said he hadn't heard the whispering that has been going on behind his back, so it was up to a reporter to relay the bad news.

What, he was asked, is his response to those boxing fans and observers who feel he is damaged goods? And that he's something of a sacrificial lamb being served up to Shane Mosley?

"Really? People are saying that?" Marquez replied before pausing to give the matter some thought.

"Well," he continued, "I can't worry much about that. I keep myself in shape and I'm going to be strong.

"Mentally and physically, I'm fine. If I didn't feel I had a chance to beat Shane Mosley, I wouldn't do it."

Marquez and Mosley will fight Feb. 8 at Mandalay Bay, and both fighters were in town this week to promote and discuss the scheduled 10-round bout. Marquez came up from Houston and Mosley came down from his mountain camp in Big Bear, Calif., giving each a chance to size the other up.

"He's the bigger man, I know that," Mosley said. "He brings size and probably a pretty good punch to the table, while I bring speed and elusiveness.

"But he's also a southpaw and he gives me a chance to face a left-hander before I fight Winky Wright and maybe Daniel Santos."

Mosley readily admits he's looking ahead and past Marquez. A rematch with Oscar De La Hoya is all but official, with a Sept. 13 date and Mandalay Bay site, and fights with Wright and Santos are also on his tentative (2004) schedule.

But this will be Mosley's first fight at 154 pounds, while Marquez is moving back to the junior middleweight division after fighting as a middle and super middleweight the past two years.

"I feel I'll be stronger than him and that I'll be able to rough him up," Marquez said. "I'd much rather fight Shane Mosley than (middleweight champion) Bernard Hopkins."

Marquez, 31, is 34-2 with 23 knockouts and is a former junior middleweight world champion. He gained the International Boxing Federation title with a 1997 victory over Anthony Stephens at the Tropicana and defended that belt twice -- vs. Romallis Ellis and Keith Mullings -- before losing by eighth-round knockout to Yory Boy Campas later that year.

It was in the latter fight that Marquez began to show some wear and tear. Still hurting from the 70 stitches he needed to close cuts near his eyes that developed in the fight with Mullings, Marquez was sliced up again by Campas and suffered broken orbital and nasal bones.

"I shouldn't have taken that fight," Marquez said. "I should have let myself heal."

Two years later, in 1999, he suffered facial cuts again while losing by 11th-round TKO to Fernando Vargas. Following that setback, Marquez announced his retirement.

"I said, 'Hey, that's it, I'm not going to fight anymore,' " he said.

But the retirement was short-lived and Marquez was back in the ring 19 months later, taking a break from his broadcasting duties with HBO Latino. Fighting at weights ranging from 163 to 167, he has posted victories over Rob Bleakley, Tony Menefee, Roberto Baro and Anthony Brooks.

"I decided to give it one more try," Marquez said. "I didn't want to be 35 and wondering about what might have been."

The sports book at Mandalay Bay doesn't have a betting line posted yet, but Mosley figures to be a heavy favorite.

"I came back so that I could fight a guy like this," Marquez said. "It's a great opportunity for me. I still see him as a smaller guy and it looks like a good time to catch him.

"His style is plain and simple: jab, one, two, three. There's nothing awkward about it.

"I'll have a good, tight-knit defense and try to capitalize on my size."

Mosley, also 31, is 38-2 with 35 knockouts and is one of two men to have beaten De La Hoya. But Mosley has also lost his last two fights, both by decision to Vernon Forrest, and he has abandoned the welterweight ranks as a concession to his natural weight.

He said Tuesday that he weighed 166 pounds.

"I want to get back in the ring and stay sharp," he said. "I've still got a few goals and a lot of things I want to do."

He said he can't assume Marquez is anything different than what he was in his championship heyday.

"He's a former world champion with a lot of experience," Mosley said. "He's been in the ring with a number of great fighters and I'm sure he's going to do his best against me.

"I'll train as if he'll be at his very best."

Mosley is a former IBF lightweight champion and a former World Boxing Council welterweight champion, and a man who only a year ago topped many a fan's mythical "pound for pound" rankings.

He said he wasn't discouraged by the losses to Forrest.

"I can't let that bother me," he said. "I've got my plans. I've got this fight with Raul and one with Oscar and then those others.

"If I am looking past any of them, it's to get to where I want to be."

A Feb. 1 card at Mandalay Bay is complete with the addition of a Miguel Cotto vs. Cesar Bazan junior welterweight fight. It's a big test for Cotto, who is 13-0, in that Bazan is 39-5-1 and maybe not quite over the hill. That fight joins two others already announced: Juan Manuel Marquez, 39-2-1, vs. Manuel Medina, 60-12; and Carlos Hernandez, 37-3-1, vs. David Santos, 42-5. Tickets are on sale and priced at $50 to $250 for a card that will be held in the hotel's 4,000-seat ballroom. ... Medina is already in Las Vegas and training for his fight with Marquez, which will be for the vacant IBF featherweight title. ... Anyone who thought Floyd Mayweather Jr. was overpaid for getting $2.4 million to fight Jose Luis Castillo, as he did Dec. 7 at Mandalay Bay, should realize Mayweather's purses are determined by his contract with HBO and that his next fight -- rega rdless of who he faces -- will be worth $2.8 million to the WBC lightweight champ.