
Mexican boxing legend Juan Manuel Marquez has vowed to "deliver a knockout to corruption" following his announcement to run for Congress in his homeland.
Marquez, 47, is running under the Ecological Green Party of Mexico ticket for the Chamber of Deputies as a representative for the Mexico City borough of Gustavo A. Madero.
Marquez was inspired by no less than Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, also a senator of the Philippines and president of political party PDP-Laban.
"I would like to work for the common good of the citizens, in this case where it corresponds me to do so," said Marquez during a press conference held in the Martín Carrera neighborhood as quoted by Daily Mail.
"And I did it in the ring against a fighter who is going to run for president of the Philippines, who was a representative, who is a senator and who may be President of the Philippines because he (Pacquiao) has done well and that serves as an example to be able to do it here. If he can do it in the Philippines, why can't I do it here in the country," added the former four-division world boxing champion.
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One of his advocacies focuses on the promotion of sports for the youth by installing more boxing gyms
"We are people who 'die trying,' we have always struggled to improve and now I am going to do it for the citizens of Gustavo A. Madero. The battle is not with gloves, it is with intelligence, with work and effort," added Marquez, who hanged his gloves for good in 2014 and ended his boxing career with a 56-7-1 record.
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Marquez had one draw and two losses against Pacquiao in his heydays before shocking the world with a knockout win over the Filipino rival in 2012.
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Marquez is not the first Mexican sporting great to enter politics though as national soccer team standout Cuauhtémoc Blanco retired from the sport before becoming mayor of Cuernavaca the same year and governor of the south central state of Morelos in 2018.