Lessons from Juan Manuel Marquez: How British law graduate profited from a holiday in Mexico to launch pro career

Law graduate Alex Dilmaghani continues to apply lessons learned from legendary Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez this weekend in his pursuit of a world title. After visiting a friend on holiday in Mexico City back in 2011, the Brit ventured out to the famed gym of esteemed trainer Nacho Beristain in the Granjas Mexico district.

A student of the sport, Dilmaghani was determined to catch a glimpse of the some of Beristain’s world champions. Often finding himself dropping his law books for tales from the greats of yesteryear, such as Jack Johnson and Archie Moore, the super featherweight’s life would change forever while peppering a punchbag in the sticky humidity of the Romanza Gym.

Beristain barked at him, “English”, before making a scarcely-believable offer to share the ring with the most polished pupil of them all: Marquez.

‘Dinamita’ Marquez was busy preparing to face Manny Pacquiao for a third time, but managed to complicate his own training camp by leaving Beristain scrambling around for new sparring partners. Undeterred by Marquez breaking one’s jaw and knocking out others, Dilmaghani, in his southpaw stance to replicate the Filipino, accepted and thrived over a three-year stay.

“One day I was watching Marquez on HBO, I was studying him, then the next day I’m sparring him, it was surreal,” Dilmaghani tells The Independent ahead of his fight with Francisco Fonseca on Saturday on Channel 5.

“It wasn't just him, there were (fellow world champions) Jhonny Gonzalez and Rey Vargas. It was such a great experience.

“He was preparing for Pacquiao. I thought I had a fantastic chin because I'd never been down but I knew I could take a punch when Marquez hit me.”

Marquez would lose a tight decision in that third fight, but showed his lethal ability to combine power and timing by laying out Pacquiao in their fourth fight in 2012 to end one of boxing’s greatest rivalries. The former four-weight world champion provided invaluable experience for the half-Iranian southpaw, who pinpoints just what he learned from the future Hall-of-Famer.

“Everything had a method to it, a purpose, he trained properly,” Dilmaghani recalls. “It was his nature, so professional.

“He’d shake hands, he was friendly, but then when it came to work time, there was no playing around. You either do boxing or you don't, there's no in between.”

Now better off from the excruciating high-altitude runs in the mountains of Toluca and a professional career that has also taken him to Canada, Dilmaghani is settled back in Dorking.

At 19-1, his dreams of a big domestic clash with Josh Warrington or Kid Galahad, while distant, are creeping closer with his comfort at boxing at both 126 and 130 pounds. The 28-year-old is now flourishing since adopting the ‘Mexican style’ alongside his defensive instinct, but one aspect of the hundreds of rounds shared with Marquez remains.

“The most impressive thing was his timing,” Dilmaghani adds. “I knew he was a great fighter, he is how he is, but what I didn't appreciate was his timing and his decisiveness.

“He wouldn't hit me around the chin, he'd hit me straight on it.”