It’s official.  The Giant Pacific Octopus at the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay entered the sports predictions arena earlier this morning when he aggressively selected Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez as the winner over Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz in Saturday night’s contest between the two pugilists who are fighting for Marquez’s Ring Magazine, WBA and WBO Lightweight World titles at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and live on HBO Pay-Per-View.

 The unnamed, 1-year-old male octopus weighs an estimated 40 pounds, has a six-foot reach, tentacles roughly three feet long, is the second octopus to predict the outcomes of sporting events this summer, the first being the mollusk Paul in Germany, who went undefeated in correctly picking all of Germany’s World Cup games as well as Spain’s championship win.  The intelligent animal chose between two 8” x 8” acrylic boxes placed inside his tank.  Each box was labeled with one of the fighter’s names.   

 “Let’s see if the octopus that picked Marquez to win Saturday night will be as accurate as Paul was during the World Cup,” said Richard Schaefer, CEO Golden Boy Promotions.  “Either way, we are going to have a great night of boxing from top to bottom as this is one of the strongest events we have ever had for the fans watching in the arena and on pay-per-view.  All of these match-ups have the potential of being fight of the year for 2010.”

 Marquez vs. Diaz II “Fight of the Year: The Rematch” is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Marquez Boxing Promotions, and sponsored by Cerveza Tecate and AT&T.  The 12-round rematch of the 2009 “Fight of the Year” is scheduled for Saturday, July 31 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, and will be for Marquez’s Ring Magazine, WBA and WBO Lightweight World titles.  The fight will be produced and distributed live on HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT.

 The stacked pay-per-view undercard will feature Daniel “The Golden Child” Jacobs vs. Dmitry Pirog in a 12-round bout for the vacant WBO Middleweight title, Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero vs. Joel “El Cepillo” Casamayor in a 10-round junior welterweight bout and Jorge “El Niño De Oro” Linares vs. Rocky Juarez in a 10-round lightweight bout.

 Tickets for Marquez vs. Diaz II are priced at $350, $250, $150, $100 and $50 and are on sale now. Tickets are available for purchase at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith's Food and Drug Centers and Ritmo Latino).  To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (800) 745-3000      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.  Tickets also will be available for purchase at www.mandalaybay.com or www.ticketmaster.com