Israel Vázquez

Israel Vázquez Castañeda (born December 25, 1977 in Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican professional boxer. He is a former Super Bantamweight (also known as Junior Featherweight) world champion, having held titles at this weight from 2004 to 2008. He is perhaps best known for his series of fights with fellow Mexican Rafael Márquez.

Career

In 1995, Vázquez made his professional debut in the bantamweight division. He stopped his first nine opponents before suffering a knock out loss himself. Fighting mainly in the US and at junior featherweight, he beat 11 opponents, most notably Óscar Larios (20-0), before losing a split decision to Marcos Licona.

Vázquez scored 12 consecutive victories and in 2002, he met Larios in a rematch. This time, he was outboxed and stopped in the 12th round.

Vázquez rebounded with a stoppage of ex-world title holder Jorge Eliecer Julio and won the vacant IBF Junior Featherweight title against southpaw Jose Luis Valbuena in 2003.

In the first defence of his IBF title he knocked out undefeated Armenian Artyom Simonyan in the 5th round. In 2005, Vázquez opted to fight WBC champion Óscar Larios for a third time with the WBC belt on the line instead of defending his IBF belt. He won the rubber match by technical knockout in the third round — after the fight was stopped due to a large cut over Larios's left eye, thus becoming The Ring's Junior Featherweight world champion.

On June 10, 2006, Vázquez defeated former champion Ivan Hernandez (23-1-1). Vázquez defeated the WBO Bantamweight champion Jhonny González on September 16, 2006 in a bout where Vázquez was knocked down twice before coming back to win the match by 10th round TKO.

Vázquez vs Márquez I, II,III, and IV

In his next bout, on March 3, 2007, Vázquez lost his title to the number one ranked Bantamweight Rafael Márquez. Although Vazquez scored a knockdown in the third round, he retired on his stool at the end of round seven because of breathing problems arising from a broken nose.

However, in a rematch bout on August 4, 2007, Vásquez regained his title. Vásquez, despite suffering cuts over both eyes, scored a knockout in the sixth round in a fight that was named Ring Magazine's fight of the year for 2007. The third round of this fight was also named Ring Magazine round of the year.

He fought Marquez for the third time on March 1, 2008, rising from a fourth round knockdown to prevail by split decision in another great fight. Márquez was deducted one point for low blows in round ten and received an eight count in the final seconds of round twelve. The fight was named 2008's Fight of the Year by The Ring Magazine and the fourth round was named Ring Magazine round of the year. The Vázquez vs Márquez trilogy has been widely heralded as one of the best boxing trilogies in recent years.^[1][2]

On December 18, 2008, Vázquez was stripped of his WBC Super Bantamweight Championship^[3] after not defending the title for a certain period of time due to a detached retina he had suffered during his third fight with Márquez. Japanese fighter Toshiaki Nishioka's WBC Interim title was promoted to actual championship status after his victory over Genaro Garcia. After undergoing three surgeries, Vázquez was medically cleared to resume training on May 15, 2009.^[4]

Vazquez fought Marquez for a fourth time on May 22, 2010. The bout took place in the Featherweight division and was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, United States.^[5] The match was appropriately titled "Once and Four All" and carried live by Showtime. Marquez scored a third round TKO victory over Vazquez to even their series at two wins each.^[6][7] Afterwards, Marquez stated: "The fifth one could be a possibility if the fans vote for it. That is what I live for. Israel Vasquez is a great fighter." However, it was felt by some observers that the much faded Vaquez should retire. Frank Espinoza, Vazquez's longtime handler, stated that his "career is over".^[8]

Professional boxing record

See also

• List of current world boxing champions
• List of WBC world champions
• Ring Magazine pound for pound

References

External links

• Israel Vázquez Fight-by-Fight Career Record
• Professional boxing record for Israel Vázquez from BoxRec
• Israel Vazquez interview on Convicted Artist Magazine