“If you want to say my name helped him get this opportunity on Friday, then that’s fair,” he said in a video interview along with his son last week after Giovanni’s last prefight workout at the Raul Marquez Boxing Fitness Gym in Humble, Texas, outside Houston.
Then again, Giovanni Marquez, 21, has been generating boxing buzz for some time. At the National Golden Gloves championships last year in Tulsa, Okla., he won the 152-pound title and was voted the outstanding boxer of the tournament. His amateur record was a gaudy 75-12.
“Gio has been dealing with the perception that his success is the result of his dad’s name his whole life,” said Raul Marquez, 50. “But he never complains. He puts his head down and works, and the results speak for themselves. My name didn’t help him dominate the amateurs.”
Giovanni Marquez added that he did not feel much pressure as a result of bearing the family name.
“I just have faith in God,” he said. “Work hard. Stay focused.”
The younger Marquez’s opponent, Nelson Morales, had his own compelling story. He was born in the Dominican Republic, grew up in Newark, lives in Scranton, Pa., and is a part-time police officer who trains whenever he can. Morales, 30, entered the bout with a 2-0 professional record, he said in an interview on Tuesday, just as he had finished getting a haircut.
“I’m just trying to look good on TV,” he said. “I’ve got to sell myself.”
With a wife and two children, and a third child on the way, Morales said he relished the chance to fight the son of a world champion.
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