It's Not On: Vazquez-Marquez IV Not Likely in 2009

It looks like one of the best boxing rivalries of all time will not see a fourth chapter. At least not anytime soon.

Ironically enough, it is all due to a star-studded fall boxing schedule.

Dan Rafael (ESPN's boxing scribe extraordinaire) has reported on his blog that despite the best efforts of Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) CEO Richard Schaefer: It's just not possible to pull the resources together at this point to stage the fight before the end of 2009.

A venue (MGM Grand in Las Vegas) and date (Oct. 17) had already been reserved by GBP. But Showtime, which is the network that originally broadcast the three now classic fights, already has a big show planned for that night, in the form of the first two fights of its highly promoted super-middleweight tourney.

The other big network who was approached, HBO, also declined to become involved on staging Vazquez-Marquez IV. Their reason: they already booked two PPV mega-fights for the fall, each of which will feature one of the two currently biggest names in the sport.

In addition to those fights, several other matches will be featured on HBO on non-PPV events: Diaz-Malignaggi, Bute-Andrade II, and negotiations are still ongoing for Vitali Klitschko-Arreola and Pavlik-Williams.

The only option left for Golden Boy Promotions was to stage the fight and broadcast the PPV event themselves. But GBP doesn't seem willing to undertake the risk this time, since the two warriors have never headlined PPV events on their own, and so revenue projections are uncertain.

Also, Mr. Schaefer cited competition for media coverage from other events (namely the World Series) as an additional obstacle in putting the fight together.

With no network to chip in with money and share the risk with, GBP has deemed it too risky to go it alone, and so the fight will be shelved for the time being.

In the meantime, Rafael Marquez is scheduled to fight a tune-up in Guadalajara, Mexico on Aug. 22. This will be his second fight since he lost the rubbermatch to Israel Vazquez.

It should also be noted that both fighters have moved to the featherweight division. Marquez's first post-trilogy fight took place at 126 pounds, and so will his next fight.

Israel Vazquez has pledged to jump up in weight as well, even though he has not fought since the final fight of the trilogy, due to being in recovery from a detached retina.

Even if a fourth installment of the rivalry does not take place, there are plenty of names in their new division that could provide for very interesting, not to mention crowd-pleasing, battles.

Chris John and Rocky Juarez are two of them—they will be fighting each other for the second time on the undercard of Mayweather-Marquez. And let's not forget the Cuban rising star Yuriorkis Gamboa.

Boxing is a sport where true warriors should not have a hard time in finding a challenge.

Let's hope it proves true for Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, two of Mexico's finest.