Michael Katsidis - Professional Career - 2010

2010

Return to London

Having reclaimed the interim title, Katsidis was made to wait several months to see if a mandatory title bout with Juan Manuel Márquez would materialise. This was dependent on whether Márquez was willing return to the lightweight division to defend his WBO championship, or if he would voluntarily reliquish it to Katsidis in favour of moving up to light welterweight for potentially bigger fights. By January 2010, Márquez had not yet expressed any desire to defend against Katsidis.

A date on 27 March against then-reigning IBF super featherweight champion Robert Guerrero was at one point confirmed for a Golden Boy Promotions event, but Guerrero withdrew from the fight in early February due to family matters. One day prior to Guerrero's withdrawal, Katsidis had turned his attention towards old nemesis Juan Díaz, with both expressing an interest in a potential rematch.

On 2 March, a fight between Katsidis and then-undefeated lightweight challenger Kevin Mitchell was officially confirmed by promoter Frank Warren. It was contested on 15 May at Boleyn Ground stadium in London, with the WBO interim lightweight title on the line. At the opening bell, Mitchell looked to establish his jab and keep Katsidis at bay. In the first two evenly split rounds, the occasional flurry of hooks from a highly aggressive Katsidis was enough to make Mitchell fight consistently on the back foot in an attempt to keep out of range. However, in the closing seconds of both rounds, Katsidis was able to launch a charging attack and finish strongly at the bell. In the third round, Katsidis continued to charge at Mitchell and was soon able to land a combination of hooks which made the latter stumble backwards on unsteady legs. From thereon, Mitchell was unable to fully regain his composure and, less than two minutes later, he was buckled by a hard left hook and a further succession of unanswered punches, at which point referee Dave Parris stopped the fight.

The waiting game

Immediately after the Mitchell bout, the WBO mandated that Juan Manuel Márquez must face Katsidis for the 'full' version of the lightweight world championship, or risk being stripped. This was reiterated some months later, following Márquez's victory over Juan Díaz in a rematch of their 2009 fight. Katsidis was in attendance for the aforementioned event in order to scout out the winner and primarily to assert his claim to be next in line against Márquez.

World title challenge

On 25 August the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, Richard Schaefer, announced that Márquez had decided to stay at lightweight and defend his WBA, WBO and The Ring titles against Katsidis on 27 November at the MGM Grand. Golden Boy Promotions founder Oscar De La Hoya titled the event as Warriors, and it was to be Katsidis' first time headlining an HBO World Championship Boxing broadcast (having twice previously headlined HBO's Boxing After Dark, against Casamayor and Díaz). Tragedy occurred during Katsidis' pre-fight preparation and training in Thailand, when his brother Stathi died on 19 October.

In what many observers were anticipating to be a highly fan-friendly fight, Márquez suffered a knockdown in round three from a hard Katsidis left hook. He managed to recover swiftly, building up a lead on all the judges' scorecards and gradually neutralising Katsidis' aggression with accurate counterpunching at close range. In the ninth round, Márquez landed a succession of cleanly landed uppercuts on an unsteady Katsidis (who had already been staggered by an uppercut in the eighth), prompting referee Kenny Bayless to step in and halt the fight. Despite a third defeat for Katsidis, the fight went on to win HBO's award for 2010 Fight of the Year.