After a successful amateur career that culminated in a 1992 Olympic birth, Raul Marquez fought professionally for 16 years. During that time he never shied away from taking on the best fighters available and was able to capture an IBF junior middleweight title. Now Marquez spends his time broadcasting fights in English and Spanish on Showtime. He recently took some time from his busy broadcasting schedule to talk with Big Time Boxing about the sport he loves.
Question: You were born in Mexico but moved to the U.S. at a young age. How old were you when your first started boxing and what brought you to the sport?
Answer: "Let's see, I want to say I was seven years old when I started boxing and I had my first fight when I was eight years old, here in Houston. What got me into boxing was my dad. He was always a huge boxing fan. He followed the Mexican fighters from back in the day like Carlos Zarate and Ruben Olivares. And he's the one that got me into boxing, he was just always a big boxing fan. He asked me if I wanted to try it out and I said I did. I liked the idea of it and tried it out and after that I wanted to go every day. I took a liking to it and I was very competitive. It's just weird how it happened because there's never been any boxing background, we don't come from a boxing family."
Q: You went to the Olympics in 1992 on a really stacked team that included Oscar De La Hoya and Vernon Forrest. What was it like being part of a team like that and representing the U.S. on the world stage?
A: "I made the national team in 1989 when I won my first National Open title. Before that I had already won the National Junior Olympics when I was 15 and when I was 18 I won my first National Open where age doesn't matter. I made the national team and from 1989 to 1992 I was on the national team and traveling the whole world. I went to Russia, I went to Italy, Germany, Barbados, Canada, Sweden, just all over the world man. We just competed against different countries at like the World Championships, I actually won a bronze medal at the World Championships in 1989. So making the Olympic team was the peak of it. I had been on the national team for three of fours years already, winning every fight you could think of, every national title you could think of. It meant a lot to me man, being part of that team. It was the peak of my amateur career. I didn't medal, I lost in the quarter finals, I won two fights and lost in the quarter finals and it hurt me. I thought that I won the fight, it was a close fight, and the guy who beat me went on to the finals and he got a silver medal. The guy that won the gold medal, Juan Lemus from Cuba, I had beat like three months before the Olympics at a world challenge match where the top guys fight the number one ranked guy which was me and I beat him there. I had beat him but I mean three months later this guy wins the gold medal and I'm out of the Olympics and I didn't get a medal. It was an honor to be on the team though and it's a great memory."
Q: You turned pro in 1992 shortly after the Olympics and fought for 16 years. Is there one fight that stands out as the toughest of your career?
A: "I want to say the Keith Mullings fight. That was when Oscar De La Hoya fought Hector Camacho, I was on the undercard as the co-main event. He was a tough guy, he was in the Olympic trials too when I fought. He was a guy from the Marines and a tough rugged guy. It was a tough fight man, my hand was swollen, I got cut up pretty bad and I stilled pulled out the split decision. Some people thought I lost the fight but I think I won. It was a close fight but I don't think he did enough to win the fight. Three months after that we fought again, we didn't fight each other, I fought 'Yori Boy' Campas and that's when I lost the title. I still wasn't healed up from that fight and that's why I lost the title. Mullings also fought on that card and he won the world title, he knocked out Terry Norris so that tells you how good he was."
Q: Winning a world title is a culmination of a professional career. Describe how you felt when you won the IBF junior middleweight world title, what was winning that world title like?
A: "I fought in April of 1997, it was when Oscar De La Hoya fought Pernell Whitaker. Oscar fought at night at the Thomas & Mack Center and I fought during the day at the Tropicana Hotel and it was on ABC Wide World of Sports. I fought Anthony Stephens and we fought for a vacant title because Terry Norris wouldn't fight me, he vacated the title. So the next contender was there and it was me and Anthony Stephens and he had fought Felix Trinidad and went 10 rounds with Trinidad and he dropped Trinidad too. Trinidad got back up and stopped him in the 10th round but he gave Trinidad a pretty good fight. Anyways, I fought him for the vacant IBF title and you know I worked so hard for all my life to get there. From my amateur career and then fighting as a pro, you know just all the training camps and hard training and doing everything it takes to become a world champion and to win that title meant everything to me and my family."
Q: There are a lot of good names on your resume, you always took on tough opponents. Of all your opponents who would you say had the best chin and who hit the hardest?
A: "The hardest hitter, to me, was probably Arthur Abraham. That's when I fought for the middleweight title, that was my last fight and he was the hardest hitter. Best chin? There's a lot of them but I'd have to go with 'Yori Boy' Campas. He had a pretty good chin, he had a great chin. I hit him with some good shots. One of the tougher fights for me, not just competitively, but fighting a guy who was so strong and was on his A game and was very sharp and explosive and the way he moved was Fernando Vargas. I think I fought him when he was in his prime and he was on man, he was a good fighter."
Q: Fans on social media love to debate fantasy match-ups. If you could make your own fantasy bout and take on anyone, active or retired, who would it be?
A: "I would have loved to fight a guy like Roberto Duran because he came to fight and I liked to fight. 'Marvelous' Marvin Hagler is another one. There's a lot of fighters I would have liked to fight. I'll put it this way, when I was coming up I always found a way to fight the cash cow from my era. I tried to position myself all the time to fight the guy that was the cash cow. Obviously that cash cow was Oscar De La Hoya. That's why I fought guys like Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas. I fought Mosley before he fought Oscar for the second time. I was always trying to position myself to get a fight with Oscar. If I would have beaten Mosley then no one would have wanted to see a rematch between him and Oscar, they would have wanted to see me."
Q: As someone who has made a living fighting and now calling fights on television, who do you consider to be the greatest boxer of all-time?
A: "Well I grew up watching Julio Cesar Chavez and Roberto Duran so I'm going to stick with those guys."
Q: You just gave your picks for two of the best fighters of all-time but what about currently, who do you rank as the number one pound-for-pound fighter right now?
A: "I like Errol Spence, he's a bad dude. I like (Vasyl) Lomachenko, I like Mikey Garcia. Who else is up there? I like GGG (Gennady Golovkin). In no particular order man I like all of those fighters. Any of them could be the top pound-for-pound fighter."
Q: Since you mentioned Gennady Golovkin, who do you like in the rematch between him and Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez?
A: "I like GGG. I definitely thought he won the first fight. Maybe it was 7-5 or even 8-3 with one round even but I definitely think GGG won the first fight."
Q: As a former boxer and current broadcaster if you could change one thing about the sport what would it be?
A: "I would change a few things about the sport but one thing I would change would be to just have one title in each weight division, one world champion. But in order to do that everyone is going to have to fight the best. Nowadays it's a lot of business. I felt like when I was coming up I didn't really look at it as a business, I just wanted to fight the best. When I worked my way up to fight for the title again I fought Fernando Vargas who was one of the best of my time, of my era. That was my second loss and then when I worked my way up again and moved up to middleweight and fought Jermain Taylor. Jermain Taylor beat a lot of good fighters, he beat (Bernard) Hopkins. Then I fought (Arthur) Abraham, I fought Shane Mosley, I was always trying to fight the best to be the best. I think a lot of fighters now don't want to fight the best."
Q: I want to transition to your broadcast career. When did you decide that you wanted to pursue a career in broadcasting?
A: "In 1996 there was a producer who gave me an opportunity to broadcast in Spanish. He said 'Hey do you want to try this?' One of the other guys couldn't do it, it was on Telemundo. Actually the fight I called was a 'Yori Boy' Campas fight. I just tried doing it, I mean I've been doing it for years, it definitely didn't happen overnight. From there it just evolved and I was doing more stuff and I was doing stuff in English. I've worked with everybody you can think of: Barry Tompkins, Al Bernstein, Curt Menefee, Rich Marotta, Bob Papa, Steve Farhood. I did NBC with Bob Papa and I also did a lot of international calls. I'd do NBC and then I'd do HBO Latino in Spanish, it was all just good experience, it was like college for me. About six years ago I got on with Showtime and I was doing Spanish and I started in February of 2012 and that October I was talking to one of the producers and I said 'I just don't want to do Spanish, I want to do English too. Give me an opportunity to do English, I'll do ShoBox, or the big Showtime, I'll do anything.' They gave me an opportunity in 2012 on ShoBox and I've been working with them ever since. I love the Showtime family, they're great people."
Q: You just mentioned Barry Tompkins and Steve Farhood and they were both recently inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. What's it like working alongside them?
A: "Oh man, you know I think we're a great team. I try to see what people say and comment about us and they think we're a great team and they think we work together well. To me I feel the same way too. Those guys have helped me so much to just get better. Barry Tompkins is like a mentor to me, I've known him for years. He used to call my fights when I was an amateur and Steve Farhood used to write about me back when I was an amateur and as a pro. Now working with those guys, they're just great people to work with. The whole Showtime family is great. Working with Barry and Steve, we're like family, we're friends but we're like family. There's no egos involved, I love it. They really help me and for me, being around Barry Tompkins, it doesn't get any better than that. I grew up watching Barry and now to work with him and Steve I'm blessed, I'm just blessed. Hearing that people like our work makes me feel good, it makes me want to stay on top of my game, it makes me want to get better and makes me want to become a better broadcaster. I love doing it, you know I study the fighters on ShoBox and sometimes ShoBox can be difficult because sometimes you get fighters you don't know much about and you really have to study them and do your research."
Q: Is it rewarding for you to be able to watch young fighters and guys who are still just prospects
climb their way up the ladder on ShoBox to hopefully become champions one day?
A: "Oh absolutely because you know sometimes we have better fights on ShoBox because those guys are trying to get to the big time and make it to Showtime Championship Boxing. Their fights are so competitive sometimes. At ShoBox we've developed over 50, I don't know the exact number, but more than 50, fighters that went through there and then became champions. There is a lot of talent that goes through there and a lot of them become world champions or at least fight for a title and that means a lot to us and it means a lot to me too."
Q: Is there one fighter who's fought on ShoBox: The New Generation this year who you think has a good chance to become a world champion in the future?
A: "There are some guys that are very talented, even the young guys. There is a kid from Las Vegas, Devin Haney. And we have a card on September 21 headlined by Jon Fernandez and I like that guy, I really do. He's fighting O'Shaquie Foster and it should be a good fight. I like Fernandez and I like Devin Haney, he dominated his last fight and I think he's going to go places. I like the way he controls the ring and uses the ring."
Question: You were born in Mexico but moved to the U.S. at a young age. How old were you when your first started boxing and what brought you to the sport?
Answer: "Let's see, I want to say I was seven years old when I started boxing and I had my first fight when I was eight years old, here in Houston. What got me into boxing was my dad. He was always a huge boxing fan. He followed the Mexican fighters from back in the day like Carlos Zarate and Ruben Olivares. And he's the one that got me into boxing, he was just always a big boxing fan. He asked me if I wanted to try it out and I said I did. I liked the idea of it and tried it out and after that I wanted to go every day. I took a liking to it and I was very competitive. It's just weird how it happened because there's never been any boxing background, we don't come from a boxing family."Q: You went to the Olympics in 1992 on a really stacked team that included Oscar De La Hoya and Vernon Forrest. What was it like being part of a team like that and representing the U.S. on the world stage?
A: "I made the national team in 1989 when I won my first National Open title. Before that I had already won the National Junior Olympics when I was 15 and when I was 18 I won my first National Open where age doesn't matter. I made the national team and from 1989 to 1992 I was on the national team and traveling the whole world. I went to Russia, I went to Italy, Germany, Barbados, Canada, Sweden, just all over the world man. We just competed against different countries at like the World Championships, I actually won a bronze medal at the World Championships in 1989. So making the Olympic team was the peak of it. I had been on the national team for three of fours years already, winning every fight you could think of, every national title you could think of. It meant a lot to me man, being part of that team. It was the peak of my amateur career. I didn't medal, I lost in the quarter finals, I won two fights and lost in the quarter finals and it hurt me. I thought that I won the fight, it was a close fight, and the guy who beat me went on to the finals and he got a silver medal. The guy that won the gold medal, Juan Lemus from Cuba, I had beat like three months before the Olympics at a world challenge match where the top guys fight the number one ranked guy which was me and I beat him there. I had beat him but I mean three months later this guy wins the gold medal and I'm out of the Olympics and I didn't get a medal. It was an honor to be on the team though and it's a great memory."
A: "I want to say the Keith Mullings fight. That was when Oscar De La Hoya fought Hector Camacho, I was on the undercard as the co-main event. He was a tough guy, he was in the Olympic trials too when I fought. He was a guy from the Marines and a tough rugged guy. It was a tough fight man, my hand was swollen, I got cut up pretty bad and I stilled pulled out the split decision. Some people thought I lost the fight but I think I won. It was a close fight but I don't think he did enough to win the fight. Three months after that we fought again, we didn't fight each other, I fought 'Yori Boy' Campas and that's when I lost the title. I still wasn't healed up from that fight and that's why I lost the title. Mullings also fought on that card and he won the world title, he knocked out Terry Norris so that tells you how good he was."
Q: Winning a world title is a culmination of a professional career. Describe how you felt when you won the IBF junior middleweight world title, what was winning that world title like?
A: "I fought in April of 1997, it was when Oscar De La Hoya fought Pernell Whitaker. Oscar fought at night at the Thomas & Mack Center and I fought during the day at the Tropicana Hotel and it was on ABC Wide World of Sports. I fought Anthony Stephens and we fought for a vacant title because Terry Norris wouldn't fight me, he vacated the title. So the next contender was there and it was me and Anthony Stephens and he had fought Felix Trinidad and went 10 rounds with Trinidad and he dropped Trinidad too. Trinidad got back up and stopped him in the 10th round but he gave Trinidad a pretty good fight. Anyways, I fought him for the vacant IBF title and you know I worked so hard for all my life to get there. From my amateur career and then fighting as a pro, you know just all the training camps and hard training and doing everything it takes to become a world champion and to win that title meant everything to me and my family."
Q: There are a lot of good names on your resume, you always took on tough opponents. Of all your opponents who would you say had the best chin and who hit the hardest?
A: "The hardest hitter, to me, was probably Arthur Abraham. That's when I fought for the middleweight title, that was my last fight and he was the hardest hitter. Best chin? There's a lot of them but I'd have to go with 'Yori Boy' Campas. He had a pretty good chin, he had a great chin. I hit him with some good shots. One of the tougher fights for me, not just competitively, but fighting a guy who was so strong and was on his A game and was very sharp and explosive and the way he moved was Fernando Vargas. I think I fought him when he was in his prime and he was on man, he was a good fighter."Q: Fans on social media love to debate fantasy match-ups. If you could make your own fantasy bout and take on anyone, active or retired, who would it be?
A: "I would have loved to fight a guy like Roberto Duran because he came to fight and I liked to fight. 'Marvelous' Marvin Hagler is another one. There's a lot of fighters I would have liked to fight. I'll put it this way, when I was coming up I always found a way to fight the cash cow from my era. I tried to position myself all the time to fight the guy that was the cash cow. Obviously that cash cow was Oscar De La Hoya. That's why I fought guys like Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas. I fought Mosley before he fought Oscar for the second time. I was always trying to position myself to get a fight with Oscar. If I would have beaten Mosley then no one would have wanted to see a rematch between him and Oscar, they would have wanted to see me."
Q: As someone who has made a living fighting and now calling fights on television, who do you consider to be the greatest boxer of all-time?
A: "Well I grew up watching Julio Cesar Chavez and Roberto Duran so I'm going to stick with those guys."
Q: You just gave your picks for two of the best fighters of all-time but what about currently, who do you rank as the number one pound-for-pound fighter right now?
A: "I like Errol Spence, he's a bad dude. I like (Vasyl) Lomachenko, I like Mikey Garcia. Who else is up there? I like GGG (Gennady Golovkin). In no particular order man I like all of those fighters. Any of them could be the top pound-for-pound fighter."
Q: Since you mentioned Gennady Golovkin, who do you like in the rematch between him and Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez?
A: "I like GGG. I definitely thought he won the first fight. Maybe it was 7-5 or even 8-3 with one round even but I definitely think GGG won the first fight."
Q: As a former boxer and current broadcaster if you could change one thing about the sport what would it be?
Q: I want to transition to your broadcast career. When did you decide that you wanted to pursue a career in broadcasting?
A: "In 1996 there was a producer who gave me an opportunity to broadcast in Spanish. He said 'Hey do you want to try this?' One of the other guys couldn't do it, it was on Telemundo. Actually the fight I called was a 'Yori Boy' Campas fight. I just tried doing it, I mean I've been doing it for years, it definitely didn't happen overnight. From there it just evolved and I was doing more stuff and I was doing stuff in English. I've worked with everybody you can think of: Barry Tompkins, Al Bernstein, Curt Menefee, Rich Marotta, Bob Papa, Steve Farhood. I did NBC with Bob Papa and I also did a lot of international calls. I'd do NBC and then I'd do HBO Latino in Spanish, it was all just good experience, it was like college for me. About six years ago I got on with Showtime and I was doing Spanish and I started in February of 2012 and that October I was talking to one of the producers and I said 'I just don't want to do Spanish, I want to do English too. Give me an opportunity to do English, I'll do ShoBox, or the big Showtime, I'll do anything.' They gave me an opportunity in 2012 on ShoBox and I've been working with them ever since. I love the Showtime family, they're great people."
Q: You just mentioned Barry Tompkins and Steve Farhood and they were both recently inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. What's it like working alongside them?
A: "Oh man, you know I think we're a great team. I try to see what people say and comment about us and they think we're a great team and they think we work together well. To me I feel the same way too. Those guys have helped me so much to just get better. Barry Tompkins is like a mentor to me, I've known him for years. He used to call my fights when I was an amateur and Steve Farhood used to write about me back when I was an amateur and as a pro. Now working with those guys, they're just great people to work with. The whole Showtime family is great. Working with Barry and Steve, we're like family, we're friends but we're like family. There's no egos involved, I love it. They really help me and for me, being around Barry Tompkins, it doesn't get any better than that. I grew up watching Barry and now to work with him and Steve I'm blessed, I'm just blessed. Hearing that people like our work makes me feel good, it makes me want to stay on top of my game, it makes me want to get better and makes me want to become a better broadcaster. I love doing it, you know I study the fighters on ShoBox and sometimes ShoBox can be difficult because sometimes you get fighters you don't know much about and you really have to study them and do your research."Q: Is it rewarding for you to be able to watch young fighters and guys who are still just prospects
climb their way up the ladder on ShoBox to hopefully become champions one day?
A: "Oh absolutely because you know sometimes we have better fights on ShoBox because those guys are trying to get to the big time and make it to Showtime Championship Boxing. Their fights are so competitive sometimes. At ShoBox we've developed over 50, I don't know the exact number, but more than 50, fighters that went through there and then became champions. There is a lot of talent that goes through there and a lot of them become world champions or at least fight for a title and that means a lot to us and it means a lot to me too."
Q: Is there one fighter who's fought on ShoBox: The New Generation this year who you think has a good chance to become a world champion in the future?
A: "There are some guys that are very talented, even the young guys. There is a kid from Las Vegas, Devin Haney. And we have a card on September 21 headlined by Jon Fernandez and I like that guy, I really do. He's fighting O'Shaquie Foster and it should be a good fight. I like Fernandez and I like Devin Haney, he dominated his last fight and I think he's going to go places. I like the way he controls the ring and uses the ring."
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