The Méxican Independence Day Weekend boxing extravaganza headlined by the Julio César Chávez Jr. vs. Sergio Martinez World Middleweight Championship will feature four exciting bouts on the live pay-per-view undercard, including two world championship showdowns.
Undefeated World Boxing Association (WBA) super featherweight champion and Cuban expatriate Guillermo “El Chacal” Rigondeaux will defend his world title against knockout artist Roberto Marroquin of Dallas. Former world champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez, of Puerto Rico and Miguel “Barreterito” Beltran, JR., of México, will battle for the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior lightweight title. One-time world title challenger Matthew “Mack The Knife” Macklin, of England, will rumble with former world super welterweight champion Joachim Alcine, of Montréal, Québec, Canada, in a 10-round middleweight bout.
The pay-per-view undercard telecast will open with undefeated University of Notre Dame champion Mike Lee in a six-round light heavyweight bout against an opponent to be named soon.
These seven gladiators boast a combined record of 155-9-2 (100 KOs) – a winning percentage of 93%, with nearly 2/3 of those victories coming by way of knockout.
“The pay-per-view undercard will set the stage for the most anticipated fight of the year in Chavez Jr. vs. Martinez. September 15 is going to be a great night of action and a very entertaining event worthy of its date,” said Todd duBoef, president of Top Rank.
“Macklin put his name into the world boxing scene with great back-to-back performances against Felix Sturm and Sergio Martinez,” said Lou DiBella. “While he came up a little short in those world title opportunities, he is hungrier than ever and looking to move himself back into the title picture. In his way stands Joachim Alcine, who is a former world champion and coming off the huge upset victory over David Lemieux. This is a do-or-die fight for both of these guys and they are going to leave it all on the line come fight night.”
Rigondeaux (10-0, 8 KOs), of Miami, Fla., had a stellar amateur career, winning Olympic gold medals in 2004,and 2000, World Amateur Championship titles in 2005 and 2001, and Pan American Games gold medals in 2005 and 2003, all at 119 pounds, before defecting from Cuba and embarking on a professional career which began in Miami in 2009. In only his seventh professional fight where both fighters scored knockdowns, Rigondeaux captured the WBA interim super bantamweight title, winning a tough split decision over the vastly more experienced former world champion Ricardo Cordoba in 2010.
After successfully defending the interim title last year with a first-round knockout of previously undefeated former European super bantamweight champion Willie Casey, Rigondeaux won the WBA world super bantamweight championship with a sixth-round knockout of previously undefeated defending champion Rico Ramos on January 20. Rigondeaux returns to ring after successfully defending that title on June 9, blasting once-beaten Teon Kennedy out in the fifth round, which included Kennedy suffering five knockdowns en route to the loss.
Marroquin (22-1, 15 KOs), from Dallas, TX, is known for bring the “total package” – a fan-favorite combination of style, technique, power and personality. A former amateur standout with victories over Gary Russell Jr. and Adrien Broner, Marroquin enters his first world championship challenge with a professional resume highlighted by several impressive performances, including knockout victories of Edward Arcos, Gilberto Sanchez-Leon and Arturo Camargo, who had a combined record of 68-23-5 when Marroquin fought them, all before Marroquin had fought his 19th professional fight. Riding a three-bout winning streak since losing a hotly-contested split decision to Francisco Leal, Marroquin is world-rated No. 15 by the WBA.
Martinez (25-1-1, 16 KOs), of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, captured the WBO junior lightweight title in 2009, scoring two knockdowns en route to knocking out defending champion Nicky Cook in the fourth round. Martinez successfully defended his title twice – both by knockout – against world-rated contenders Feider Viloria and Gonzalo Munguia, before losing the title in 2010 via the slimmest of margins in a spirited battle against Ricky Burns – a consensus Fight of the Year candidate. Currently world-rated No. 9 by the WBO, Martinez returns to the ring after stopping former world title challenger Daniel Attah in the sixth round last October.
Beltran Jr. (27-1, 17 KOs), of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, México, making his U.S. debut, will be challenging for a world title for the second time. His first attempt, against IBF junior lightweight champion Juan Carlos Salgado last December, was ruled a No Contest due to a cut over the left eye of Salgado from an accidental clash of heads in the second round. Known for his aggressive style and solid punching power, Beltran boasts impressive victories, including winning the Campeon Azteca featherweight tournament by beating Miguel “Mickey” Roman, and sticking previously undefeated Eduardo Lazcano with his first loss. World-rated No. 8 by the WBO, Beltran enters this fight riding a two-year, six-bout unbeaten streak.
Macklin (28-4, 19 KOs), hails from Birmingham, England, though the proud Irishman travels on an Irish passport. Macklin returns to the ring after two high profile competitive world championship battles. After fashioning a four-year, 11-bout winning streak between 2007 and 2011, which included knockout victories of Wayne Elcock for the British middleweight title and Amin Asikainen and Shalva Jomardashvili for the European middleweight championship, Macklin rose to career-high world rankings — No. 2 in the WBA and No. 4 in the WBO – and his first world title shot, against “Super” WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm. The two clashed June 25, 2011 in Sturm’s native Germany, where Macklin outworked and seemingly outscored the defending champion in every round only to be handed a very controversial split decision loss.
Macklin’s heroic effort and favorable world opinion led to his getting another title shot, this time against Sergio Martinez on March 17 in front of a raucous and partisan St. Patrick’s Day crowd at Madison Square Garden. Macklin took an early lead and even dropped Martinez in the seventh round, but Martinez returned the favor in the 11th round dropping Macklin twice leading Macklin’s corner to end the contest during the break between the 11th and 12th rounds. Macklin enters this fight world-rated No. 7 by the WBC.
Alcine (33-2-1, 19 KOs), a native of Haiti, now living in Montréal, Québec, Canada, won the WBA super welterweight title in 2007, dethroning Travis Simms via a dominant unanimous decision. He held the title for one year before losing it to Daniel Santos. Alcine has gone 3-1-1 since losing the title, but it was his most recent fight, a 12-round majority decision upset victory over the highly touted David Lemieux for the WBC International middleweight crown, on December 10, which put the boxing world on notice that Alcine was back. Currently world-rated No. 9 by the WBC and the WBO, Alcine knows what’s at stake when he faces Macklin.
Lee (10-0, 6 KOs), a native of Chicago who now fights out of Houston, is a 2009 graduate of Notre Dame where he earned a Finance degree from the Mendoza School of Business with a 3.8 GPA while winning the school’s legendary Bengal Bouts boxing tournament three years in a row as well as the 2009 Golden Gloves Championship. Trained by Ronnie Shields, Lee has shown great potential as a fighter while attracting Madison Avenue to the sport as a national spokesman for Subway Restaurants where he has been featured in the company’s nationally-televised advertising campaigns.
Lee has also proved to be a powerful box office attraction, packing houses with rabid and loyal University of Notre Dame fans, students and alumni. Lee returns to the ring fresh a career-best victory, a second-round knockout of Tyler Seever on August 4. Seever’s victory by knockout ratio was a powerful 85%, where 11 of his 13 wins had come inside the distance.
