Super bantamweight contender Ramon Cardenas fights Israel Picazo on Friday’s extraordinary edition of Wednesday Night Fights hoping to again pay tribute to the great Juan Manuel Márquez.
Cardenas-Picazo represents the ProBox TV main event from Plant City, Florida, and with Cardenas hoping to extend his 11-fight winning streak, he has been given a further lift by the knowledge that none other than Marquez will be commentating for the Spanish language broadcast.
“My nickname is Dinamita,” Cardenas, at 28 three years older than Picazo, told ProBox TV. “I got it because of Juan Manuel Marquez. Growing up I looked up to him. It wasn’t until I got older that I realised how beautiful his style really was. The stuff he used to do – not everybody could do that. So I was like, I like Juan Manuel Marquez, so I’m going to take his nickname and keep it for myself now.
“It is going to be something special to have him commentate on my fight and I get to see what he thinks of me; what he thinks I can work on; stuff like that. I never met him, but it is a crazy story. My dad met him, and I was supposed to go with my dad to hang with him and everything – then I didn’t end up going because my dad went late. He never text me or nothing.
“I’m pretty excited to meet him though, man. He’s a hero of mine growing up. I’ll never forget, I always tell people this story. I was at [the restaurant] Buffalo Wild Wings watching his fight versus [Manny] Pacquiao in 2012.”
On that December night Marquez produced one of the most chilling of all knockouts at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand to leave Pacquiao lifeless on the ring canvas.
“I don’t know if you have ever been to a Buffalo Wild Wings, but they have two sides,” Cardenas explained. “They have the bar side and the dining side. The people in the bar started fighting. Everyone there that had a Mexico jersey on and everything, me and my brother was there, they told us ‘If you leave, the food will be free’, because they didn’t want nobody to fight no more. So we left. That’s when Marquez knocked out Pacquiao, and the Pacquiao fans were fighting the Marquez fans. It was crazy.
“It is a core memory I will have forever. You know when they tell you, ‘Where were you when the man landed on the moon?’ but for me, I’ll never forget where I was on that day in 2012.”
