Former bantamweight and jr. featherweight champ, 36-year old Rafael Marquez (39-6, 35 KOs), will be back in action, June 4th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA against Connecticut’s Mike Oliver (24-2, 8 KOs) as part of the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Sebastian Zbik card.
This will be Marquez’s first fight back since his RTD 8 loss to featherweight, Juan Manuel Lopez in November of last year. In that contest, the former two-division champ performed well in the early rounds, only to eventually succumb to the younger, stronger Lopez and an apparent shoulder injury. The 16-year veteran from Mexico City has been in the ring with the likes of Mark Johnson, Tim Austin, and Silence Mabuza. He is most famous, however, for the brutal four-fight series he split 2-2 with countryman, Israel Vazquez.
Mike Oliver, 31, is a solid jr.featherweight/featherweight on the regional, northeast circuit, but has failed to step up against next-level opposition. After a bad 2008, which saw him stopped in three rounds by both Antonio Escalante and Reynaldo Lopez, Oliver has gone 3-0 with one no contest against club-level opposition. Oliver’s best wins have come against Al Seeger and Gary Stark Jr., both via unanimous decision.
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