By Ryan Burton

MGM GRAND, Las Vegas, NV - Former two division world champion Rafael Marquez felt like he did enough on Saturday evening to add Toshiaki Nishioka's WBC super bantamweight title to his collection. The judges however saw things differently.  The fighter of Japanese descent retained his title via unanimous decision.  The scores were 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113.

Marquez was the more aggressive fighter for much of the fight but Nishioka was very effective with his counter punching.

"I brought the fight to Nishioka.  He was backing up the whole time," stated Marquez. "I felt like I won by at least one point.  The fans paid money to see a fight and this guy didn't want to fight.  I want a rematch."

The first few rounds of the fight were relatively close.  In the middle rounds Nishioka suffered a gash in his scalp due to an accidental clash of heads. The sight of blood seemed to awaken Marquez as he had his best rounds of the fight.

Nishioka closed the show by stepping up the pace and brought the fight to Marquez in the championship rounds. Marquez didn't have an answer for Nishioka when he came out more aggressively in round ten and kept his foot on the gas till the final bell.   

Marquez's trainer Daniel Zaragoza felt that his fighter did more than enough to win the fight.

"Sure he (Nishioka) came on at the end but Rafa won the first nine rounds," said Zaragoza. "The last three rounds don't make the whole fight."

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