Raul Marquez is destined to be what Andrew Ridgely is to George Michael. Or Jazzy Jeff to the Fresh Prince and what Peter Scolari is to Tom Hanks.

You remember those those three, right? At one time Ridgely was one-half of the pop duo 'Wham' with Michael. Jazzy Jeff was the deejay to the Fresh Prince before he was known to the world as Will Smith and Scolari was Hank's cross-dressing roomate in the 80's sitcom 'Bosom Buddies.' Eventually, this trio would be left behind as their partners moved on without them to bigger and better things. Footnotes in history, remembered by only the diehards.

Long ago, Marquez was a close friend and Olympic teammate to one Oscar De La Hoya. Marquez was considered by many in the boxing business to be just as good, if not a better professional prospect than the eventual 'Golden Boy.' While they were linked closely as amateurs, De La Hoya skyrocketed to superstardom, while Marquez -- despite winning a world title -- has basically languished in anonymity.

This Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Marquez gets an opportunity to make his mark on his own career while effecting the future of De La Hoya when he takes on Shane Mosley. With a win over Mosley, Marquez not only becomes a big player in the jr. middleweight division, but he will ruin the plans for a September rematch between Mosley and De La Hoya. Marquez concedes that while Mosley does have the advantages in speed and quickness, his natural size and strength will be a huge advantage working in his favor.

"Absolutely," he agreed a few weeks ago when he spoke to MaxBoxing, "when I was standing next to him at the press conference, I thought he was a small guy. We came up together in the amateurs, he was always the smaller guy. I know I'm going to be stronger, I'm gonna have more power. I don't think he can hurt me, we'll see. But I know he's got the speed over me but I'll be having a lot of sparring partners with a lot of speed."

One of the unknowns in this fight is that this will be Mosley's first foray in the jr. middleweight division. And Marquez believes that, too, works in his favor. In addition to that, he thinks he's in a 'no-lose' situation.

"When you're fighting a big guy that has power and has speed, that's scary," said Marquez. "I'm bigger than him and I know I'm stronger than him, I got more power but he's got the speed over me. I've got no pressure, I'm not intimidated by him -- I'm excited. I have nothing to lose, all the pressure's on him."

While many observers consider this bout a mismatch, it's huge upset in itself that Marquez is even in this position. It was thought after his lopsided loss to Fernando Vargas in July of 1999, that he would walk off into the sunset as he announced his retirement from the game afterwards.

"First of all, I was very dissapointed when I lost to Vargas," he recalled of that moment. "But I said 'Y'know what? I'm just going to take some time off' and I started doing the HBO Latino broadcasts on all the 'World Championship Boxing' fights and running into fans and being around boxing people, they're like 'Why aren't you coming back? You only lost twice in your career, you should give it another try.'

"I thought about it and that's what made me come back. I took off like a whole year and ever since then, I've had four fights and then this opportunity arose and you come back for an opportunity like this. I'm going to make the best out of it."

His four victories, beginning in February of 2001, would come against the likes of Anthony Brooks, Roberto Baro, Tony Menefee and Rob Bleakley -- not exactly 'the Fearsome Foursome'. But when efforts to match Mosley in his 154-pound debut against the likes of Daniel Santos and Yory Boy Campas failed for one reason or another, Marquez started to hustle.

"I started making phone calls and I did everything I could to finally make the fight happen," he said. "I called Shane myself and told him 'You should fight me' and that's how it came about."

Marquez called Mosley on a Saturday and by Monday, Barry Frank of IMG, had called Marquez to put the deal in place.

Regardless of what happens this Saturday, it's another chapter of what has been an interesting and tumultous career that has seen it's shares of ups and downs. While De La Hoya was ascending to his stardom under the guidance of Top Rank, Marquez would sign with Main Events out of the Olympics but his career with the Duvas would stall and he then joined Bob Arum's promotional company by 1997.

"I was in the number-one position for a long time and they never did anything about it," recalled Marquez, on why he left Main Events for Top Rank. "So I kinda got discouraged and I wanted to get that shot at the title and that's why it didn't happen with the Duvas."

It was also widely speculated that Marquez's father clashed with the patriarch of Main Events, Lou Duva, over the direction of their career.

At that point in time, Terry Norris, who had held both the WBC and IBF titles, would drop the IBF belt setting the stage for Marquez to face Anthony Stephens for the vacant title in April of 1997. In a rough fight, Marquez would stop Stephens in nine rounds, 'El Diamante' would finally have a world title and things were looking up.

Who knows, maybe a lucrative fight with his former Olympic runningmate was in store. But after an easy title defense against Romallis Ellis -- a fourth round stoppage -- Marquez would hit rough waters. In September of that year he would take on the unknown Keith Mullings and in a bloody battle, he would be given a very controversial split decision that many observers didn't think he deserved. But even worse, he would suffer cuts that left him at times, a bloody mess. It would be a trend that continued the rest of his career. But less than three months later, he would face the hard-punching Campas and after a good start he would get stopped due to cuts and swelling on his face in eight rounds. It was the biggest mistake of his career, taking on such a heavy-handed banger so quickly after his grueling bout with Mullings.

"Me and my father made the wrong move," he said. "It's not just that, there's a lot of behind the scenes things."

One of those 'things' was being questioned about his performance against Mullings.

"So I wanted to prove that I was better than that," Marquez recalled. "So three months a later, I fought Yory Boy Campas, and his people know and everybody knows that I should have never taken that fight. But I did because I had pressure from people telling me that I loss my last fight, I had pressure from the promoter, Bob Arum, to do that fight because of promises."

The Marquez-Campas fight was one of the featured bouts on Arum's 'Title Wave' pay-per-view show that featured De La Hoya against Wilfredo Rivera. And one of the promises from Arum was a future fight against De La Hoya.

"Absolutely, and it probably would've happened. Beat Campas and keep fighting on De La Hoya's undercards next year and then fight De La Hoya," Marquez recalled of the scenario laid out for him.

So now we move ahead to this weekend. If Marquez pulls the upset, he replaces Mosley as De La Hoya' B-side in September right?

"Of course not, of course not," said Marquez, ever the realist. "You know how boxing is. And they even asked that at the press conference to Bob Arum if this was an eliminator and he said 'Not necessarily'. If Shane beats me, he gets Oscar. If I beat him? Well, that's up to the press and the people who are going to demand that. Why would you want to fight Shane after I beat him? That's all I have to say about that. My main concern is to beat Shane and after that, believe me, you'll be hearing a lot."

Going back to Oscar, Marquez has made it clear in the past that he no longer is close with him -- and hasn't been for the longest time. In fact, he felt as though he was used by him as a shield or even a guinea pig by De La Hoya prior to his own bout with Vargas in 1999. He insists though, that there is no bitterness and that's he happy for the amazing success he's encountered.

"It's unbelievable what he's done, I'm happy for him, I really am," he says. "This is what effects me, the relationship between me and Oscar used to be great. Now, it's not like it used to be. That's my only problem. What he's accomplished, I'm happy for him, sometimes I don't think he believes what he's done and I've always wanted an opportunity to get there.

"Me fighting Shane is the first step. I'm still very honored to be fighting someone of his caliber because he is one of the guys that handed Oscar one of his losses. If I beat Shane and if Oscar wants to fight me, I would be honored to fight Oscar. It'll be great for me."

ROCKED UP

As I was walking to my room at the Mandalay Bay this past weekend, I would run into Marquez near the casino area. As I was talking to a friend, Marquez would walk by and we would exchange pleasentries. He looked to be in outstanding shape.

When I told him that, he said "Look at this" as he untucked his T-shirt to show off a tight washboard stomach and he would then flex his bicep muscle -- which brought back a few memories. I would tell him "Uh, Raul, the last guy that did all that... well, y'know what happened there, right?"

He would just laugh and walk away. Marquez is up against some big odds on Saturday, but rest assured, he has worked incredibly hard and he will give it a great effort. He's not just coming to pick up a retirement check.

PRETTY PLACE

It looks like Floyd Mayweather may not be fighting at the Madison Square Garden afterall. Several sources have told me that MSG offered only about $125,000 as a site fee for an appearance by 'the Pretty Boy' which means now, Top Rank starts working on a plan B.

And Arum isn't exactly thrilled with HBO buying a proposed lightweight unification tilt between Paul Spadafora (IBF) and Leo Dorin (WBA) while not throwing in any extra bones to have one of those two guys face Mayweather in April.

TOP RANK PPV

It was a solid debut for Top Rank and their new revenue model. The fights were entertaining, they created future fights, they got fighters work, while making a few bucks themselves.

But a few Top Rank employees did admit to me that the pricetag on this show -- $34.95 -- was a bit too high and they made a tactical error by not going in the $24.95-$29.95 range. Which they will consider doing in the future.

But the show was meaningful in many respects. Juan Manuel Marquez, can no longer be called the best fighter in the world to never won a major title, as he took apart Manny Medina in seven for the IBF featherweight crown. Marquez, could be the games best featherweight right now, and yes, that includes Morales and Barrera, and is now a player. Miguel Cotto, got some good work and some valuable experience against former lightweight titlist Cesar Bazan. And Carlos Hernandez would win his elusive world title (IBF jr lightweight) for his country of El Salvador by smothering David Santos all night long. If Jesus Chavez can capture the WBC title on Top Rank's March 22nd show, a Hernandez-Chavez unification bout could be easily made.

They say that 'fights, make fights' and that's what happened this past weekend. It sure beats waiting around for license fees from the cable networks that may never come and putting the fighters on the sideline for months at a time.