By Sammy Rozenberg

The crowd at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California saw one of the greatest trilogy bouts in the history of the sport. Israel Vazquez (43-4, 31KOs) retained his WBC super bantamweight title by split decision over Rafael Marquez (37-5, 33KOs) after twelve-rounds of hell. The scores were 114-111 for Vazquez, 114-111 for Marquez and 113-112 for Vazquez.

Last March, Marquez moved up to 122-pounds and got off the floor in a vicious fight to stop Vazquez in the seventh round after Vazquez was unable to continue with a badly broken nose. A few months later in August, Vazquez got revenge in another exciting brawl to drop and stop Marquez in the seventh round.

The third fight began just as furious as the first two. Neither fighter was willing to work with a different script. The power punches flowed like a river in every round, but in the fourth, we saw a masterpiece. A left hand that was followed by an uppercut sent Vazquez down for the first time in the trilogy. As Marquez went for the finish, he was stunned by a hard right hand and it was Vazquez who tried to finish him off. Moments later, Marquez once again stunned Vazquez as they battled to the fourth-round bell.

After falling behind early, Vazquez continued to work his way into the fight with hard punches and body damage on the inside. In the tenth, Marquez lost a crucial point after being warned for numerous low blows during the fight. Marquez and Vazquez began to trade power punches in the eleventh as both of them tried to take the late round as they were both advised by their corners of the fight being very close.

Between the final two-rounds, Vazquez's corner begged him step it up and go for a knockout. Vazquez listened and came out like a killer in the final round, throwing nothing but power combinations to punish an exhausted Marquez. As the entire crowd stood on their feet chanting for both fighters, Vazquez was blasting away until he badly hurt Marquez, who fell backwards and grabbed the ropes to hold himself up in the final five-seconds of the fight. The referee gave him a standing eight count because if not for the ropes, Marquez would have went down.

Taking a look at the official scores, the low blow penalty and the ref calling the knockdown in the twelfth was the difference in the scoring and won Vazquez the fight.

After the decision was announced, Marquez felt he won the fight by at least two-points and was very upset with the ref’s low blow penalty in the tenth and the calling of a knockdown in the twelfth.

“It was not a low blow. That was bs. I hit him on the belt. You could watch the replay. I never went down the twelfth. Yes I held the rope, but I never went down. I was fine,” Marquez said.

Both fighters said they were open to a fourth meeting.

Depending how much weight Vazquez is willing to put on, the potential pickings are plentiful. There are plenty of opponents at 122 and 126, but the real money is at 130-pounds. If he decides to stay at 122, champions Celestino Caballero (WBA), Steve Molitor (IBF) and Daniel Ponce De Leon (WBO) are all waiting.

Depending on who you ask, Ponce De Leon is probably the toughest challenge out of the other three champions. There are rumors of a potential Caballero-Ponce De Leon unification in the works, but nothing is solid. Molitor is slowly making a name for himself. He's the most untested out of the three, but immensely popular in his country of Canada. He returns on April 5 in Ontraio, defending his title against Fernando Beltran Jr. Molitor's promoters are trying to land him a date on a major cable network in America.

The featherweight division has some very high-level competition. Jorge Linares (WBC), Chris John (WBA) Robert Guerrero (IBF) and Steve Luevano (WBO) are all tough opponents. Luevano returns on the March 15 undercard to Marquez-Pacquiao, defending against Terdsak Jandaeng. Linares, a budding star, returns on the May 3 De La Hoya-Forbes undercard against Billy Dib (some says the fight will land on the Mosley-Judah card on May 31). Guerrero stopped Jason Litzau on Friday in a masterful performance. He's open without another opponent lined up at the moment.

The recognized champion at the weight is Chris John of Indonesia. Good luck on getting him to fight in America. John has never fought in the United States, and most top fighters are not willing to meet him in Indonesia. It would take a high payday to get him on a plane to the states.

Of course at super featherweight (130), there are very big payday opportunities and some of the biggest names in the sport. The division includes Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, Edwin Valero, Joan Guzman, Alex Arthur, Jorge Barrios, Humberto Soto, Rocky Juarez and Kevin Mitchell.

Pacquiao and Marquez are set to meet in a rematch on March 15 in Las Vegas for the WBC super featherweight title . Both fighters are among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, but the winner will become the best fighter at the weight. Whether he wins or not, Pacquiao is probably moving up to 135-pounds for a title bout with WBC lightweight champion David Diaz. Valero is still under a medical suspension in the United States, preventing any chance of him fighting in the country. Guzman, who some consider the toughest guy at the weight, will defend his WBO title against Arthur in the near future.

Marquez will still be around if he loses to Pacquiao, who will move up and leave the WBC title vacant. He will still be the biggest name at the weight and presents the biggest financial opportunity between the three weight classes.

Vazquez has been mentioned as potential comeback opponent for Marco Antonio Barrera at super featherweight. Barrera was in attendance at the Home Depot Center. After watching Vazquez’s performance, Barrera might decide to take a pass.

On the undercard;

Prospect Jorge Paez Jr. (19-1, 11KOs) stopped Tomas Barragan (8-3-1, 1KO) in the third round.