Juan Manuel Marquez will return to the ring and fight for a vacant 140 lb title when he takes on Cesar Rene Cuenca on April 14 in Mexico City according to Dan Rafael of espn.com
“The fight is official. We will do the press conference on March 22 in Mexico City,” Zanfer Promotions’ Fernando Beltran, Marquez’s promoter, told ESPN.com on Tuesday.
“It’s important to keep him active. Juan Manuel wants to stay active,” Beltran said. “And he wants to definitely come back to Mexico City.”
“It’s been 18 years since he fought in Mexico City. This is his hometown. And he is very excited about it,” Beltran said. “He is excited to make a fight and what’s better for him than to be fighting in his hometown after all these years?”
Beltran said Marquez-Cuenca will be the first sports event to be held at the new $300 million Mexico City Arena, which seats 22,300 and opened in February.
“It opened a few weeks ago, but this fight will be the first sporting event and that is very exciting for us,” Beltran said.
“We’re talking to some networks. We don’t want to keep him away from his fans,” Beltran said.
“If everything goes good with Cuenca, we plan to do the pay-per-view with him in July and then try to get that fourth fight with Manny in November,” Beltran said.
“We’re looking at Mercito Gesta at the moment, but we won’t scratch anyone off (the list),” Beltran said. “Marquez would like to fight the best, so if Rios is out there we’d like to fight Rios at 140. Rios would be a big fight.”