January 2, 2003 was the day I was going to get a championship belt. I'm going against Manuel Medina, the four time featherweight champion. I lost my first shot at getting a championship belt to Freddie Norwood in 1999, so now I am determined to get this championship belt. We were the main event of the whole show. The volume in the crowd was low. My trainer is Nacho Beristain. I have a good relationship with him because we are always with each other. My Cutman is Dr. Miguel Duran, my second assistant, is Rafael Marquez Sr. My second assistant is my younger brother. There were news reporters outside of my locker room wanting to ask me questions about the fight tonight. I wasn’t very interested though. So I ignored them and prepared myself for the fights tonight. I rarely talk to news reporters or sport reporters. When I walked out I had my hype music playing I could feel the music. All of my training staff were just as hyped as me. They knew I was born to do this. When that bell rang for the first round of 12 my blood was running through my body, amped about this fight. Medina landed the first punch so I had to land a nice jab to him. At the end of the first round I landed more hits than Madina did. In the start of the second round I hit him with a nice combo and it put him on the ground. The crowd went wild, everyone was on their feet cheering. I thought I put him out with that one but he got back up in 7 seconds. The crowd was chanting my name, I was in the mode. In the middle of the second round I had swollen his right eye. I know now where I have to punch to put him out. Round three wasn’t that good, Madina was enforcing everything. We both were throwing good punches at each other. Round 4 was a slower tempo, we were just hitting each other. I hit him with a few combos, but Medina is a strong person that won’t go down easily. At the end of round four I had his nose bleeding.

When I was talking to my trainer he told me “Use your right hook, we practiced this already.” I said okay and shook my head. Start of round five feeling great I notice that his right I is lookin real bad. So that's where I start to enforce the pain. Half of the crowd was quiet, the other half was loud. At the end of round 5 the ref told Medina that if he is not being active he will stop the fight. In the middle of round 6 I hit Medina with an uppercut that had him stumbling. The crowd was way louder this round. My coach told me “Remember you gotta use your hook.” Start of the 7th round Medina was pressing me in the beginning. Medina was trying to hug me a lot. He was getting really tired. So I took advantage of that. I had him where I wanted him and I remembered that my trainer told me to use my hooks so I did. I hit with a left hook and he was stumbling, the ref went to take him to the ring doctor and she told him to end it. The crowd was going crazy. Everyone was chanting my name Manuel! Manuel! I was so hyped that the belt is finally mine. Me and my trainers were so hype we were jumping around in circles. When the ref held my hand up it felt so great and they announced I was the IBF featherweight champion. I honestly thought we were going to the 12 round and coming up in a Unanimous Decision by the judges. We only went 7 rounds though. At the end everyone gave me a round of applause . The announcer also told me that I am one of the best featherweights in the world but I haven’t really gotten a shot at anything. The announcer asked me “What was different 4 years ago when you went against Freddie Norwood”. I replied “My knowledge was different. I could have had this 4 years ago when I gave 110% into that fight against Freddie Norwood. The judges didn't think that I gave 100% and gave The win to Freddie.” All I have to say is that I am very blessed to be in this position that I am in right now. There are many more to come.