Pacquiao vs Marquez 4 Weigh-In Photo: Marquez is Ripped

At the official weigh-in at the MGM Grand Arena, one can’t help noticing Juan Manuel Marquez’ very ripped body.

The first time he moved up to the welterweight limit in his fight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. last July 2009, he came looking so puny weighing in at 142 lbs and  had no muscle definition. That’s understandable since Marquez had never weighed more than 135 lbs in a fight before.

Check out the photo below:

He fought three more times at his natural lightweight limit before returning to welterweight with his third fight against Manny Pacquiao last November 2011. He was slightly bulked up for that fight.

In his fourth fight with Pacquiao, his body is more noticeably muscular now.

While Pacquiao came in heavier; at the heaviest weight of his career at 147 lbs. he looks smaller than Marquez who weighs 4 pound less at 143 lbs. Marquez has big, bulging biceps, thick shoulders and a wide, broad chest.

Here is how they look side by side:

In three years and at now 39 years of age, critics are saying that there’s no way he could have achieved that through natural means. Suspicions of performance-enhancing drugs by Marquez now arise; which has been bugging Pacquiao for years now.

He accomplished only after he hired Angel Guillermo “Memo” Heredia as his strength and conditioning coach. Heredia previously supplied PEDs to some athletes before he testified  before a US Federal Grand Jury to avoid prosecution in the BALCO scandal. Heredia admitted providing coach Trevor Graham’s athletes, including Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin, with steroids, EPO and human growth hormone.

Of course, Marquez is quick to deny the allegations saying,

“First of all I would like to tell you that I have never done this type of work [training] before. That’s why my body has changed. I have been working very hard, specifically to get more strength. Angel is a professional and knows how much weight I am putting on. I am getting more speed and getting stronger at the same time. “As far as people thinking I am taking steroids? I would take the test. Let them take my blood. I don’t care. [I would do it] just to shut everybody up. Of course my fight tests have always been clean. I don’t know how those rumors get started.”

HBO Boxing presents Pacquiao vs Marquez 4, LIVE on pay-per-view on December 8, 2012 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.