Giovanni Marquez Makes Pro Boxing Debut Friday

Giovani Marquez was born into boxing.

The 21-year-old son of former world champion Raul Marquez will make his pro boxing debut in a four-round junior welterweight fight against Nelson Morales (2-0) on Friday. His father will be on broadcast of SHOWTIME’s “ShoBox: The New Generation” and will also be working in his son’s corner.

Marquez has a 75-12 amateur record and has a pile of boxing trophies to back it up. He said he wasn’t fully aware that his father was a figure in the boxing world until he was 12 years old.

“That’s when I realized my dad was somebody in the boxing world,” he told Ring TV.

“I was 12, 13, and I would go with my dad to these fights, and I would always wonder, ‘Why are all of these people coming up to him?’ He was someone in this boxing world. It was pretty cool. I started looking up his fights on YouTube and saw his Olympic fights. I did more research and saw his articles. My dad is very humble. He never spoke about his boxing career. He never made it a point to say he was a well-known figure in the boxing world.”

“To me, he was just dad. When he was active, I was young. I became more aware of my father when he was a broadcaster. I asked him why these people are coming up to him, and he never really explained it. I did the research on my own. Boxing was always in the family. There was never a point where my father said, ‘This is what I do.’”

Marquez finished his associate degree in liberal arts from Lone Star Community College, and plans on transferring to the University of Houston this summer to finish with a degree in finance, he told Ring TV.

The 21-year-old first fell in love with football, and had a dream of being drafted to the NFL. But eventually he realized he could “do better in boxing than in football.” He’s signed with David McWater’s Split-T Management.

His father, Raul, admitted Friday night will be difficult for him.