RAFAEL MARQUEZ vs ISRAEL VAZQUEZ

Three fights, three wars, and on Saturday Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez do it again in a 12-round featherweight bout at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, with Showtime televising.

The first three meetings were classic fights in the junior featherweight division, with Vazquez leading the series 2-1.

Each has knocked down and bloodied the other.

In their rubber match two years ago Vazquez pulled out the win with a huge last-round rally in which he had Marquez out on his feet at the final bell.

As trilogies go, this was one of the best in boxing history.

The boxers have had time to get over the rigours of the first three meetings, if, that is, fighters can ever truly make a complete recovery from fights such as these, because those contests were of the career-shortening variety.

What the boxing world wonders is which of these proud Mexican warriors has more left.

Vazquez has boxed just once in the last two years, and he had a surprisingly difficult and gruelling fight against Angel Priolo before overwhelming the Colombian journeyman in the ninth round.

Marquez, too, has had just one bout since the last fight with Vazquez, and he easily stopped a hopelessly overmatched, 37-year-old Colombian named Jose Francisco Mendoza, who crumpled in the third round.

At 35, Marquez is three years older than Vazquez, but he looks the fresher fighter. Vazquez has been in some extremely hard fights, and it is well known that he suffered a detached retina in his right eye and has undergone three corrective procedures on the eye.

I had the impression, watching Vazquez against Priolo, that what I was witnessing was a fighter coming to the end of a blood-and-guts career.

Vazquez is tough and game, and he hits hard, but he has always been rather easy to hit and I fear that the punishment he has taken might have started to catch up with him.

Marquez does not have a very reliable chin, so there is always the chance that Vazquez could hit him with a big right hand or left hook and take his rival out of the fight — that could happen.

My feeling, though, is that Marquez will come into the ring as the sharper, more effective fighter. I think that this time Marquez is going to be able to stamp his authority on the contest in the first few rounds and I believe he will be able to stay in command by getting off the quicker, crisper blows. It would not surprise me to see Vazquez suffer cuts and swellings over the eyes.

Vazquez will keep pressing in and fighting hard for as long as he is able to do so, but I have the sense that when he defeated Marquez two years ago it was his last great performance. A fighter who gives as much of himself in the ring can only keep doing so for so long. Something has to give.

I hate to write off a valiant warrior such as Vazquez, but I believe his limit has been reached. I can’t see him dredging up another display of almost awe-inspiring heart and will such as the one that carried him to victory the last time he met Marquez. I’m going with Marquez to even the series at 2-2 by hitting Vazquez hard enough and often enough to bring the referee’s intervention somewhere around the ninth round.