Boxing fans have turned to fights from the past to quench their thirst for action.
It doesn’t get much better than the all-Mexican series between junior featherweights Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, who met in three consecutive fights in 2007 and 2008 at 122 pounds and then once more in 2010 at 126.
Showtime will air the first three fights this Saturday at 10 p.m. ET / PT. The fights also will be available via the streaming service Showtime Anytime.
Two of the three Vazquez-Marquez fights that will be televised were voted Fight of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
The bouts were packed with breathtaking, back-and-forth action but also fought at a high level of skill, which made the series more compelling than mere brawls.
Hall of Fame television analyst Steve Farhood described the first fight as, “an explosion of artistic brutality.” And the epic second and third fights didn’t stray from the original script.
Said Al Bernstein, who was the analyst for all four fights: “We all knew the first fight would be great, and it more than lived up to expectations. The second fight was exciting, and when fight three came, I didn’t think they could top Nos. 1 and 2, but they did just that. It’s one of the top five fights I’ve ever announced or seen.
“The ebb and flow was tremendous, and you almost felt it didn’t matter who ended up getting the decision because they both had been so great. I can’t admire two boxers more than these two men.”
The fighters were perceived to be past their primes in the fourth fight.
Also part of the telecast, analysts Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell will react to the fights in real time and conduct a Q&A session with fans as part of their podcast “Morning Kombat with Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell.”