Marc Marquez belongs in the same conversation as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen when it comes to the greatest motorsport athletes of all time, according to TNT Sports MotoGP commentary veteran Gavin Emmett.
Marc Marquez, a nine-time world champion, has spent years rebuilding his career and body after a brutal crash at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez. The Spaniard fractured his right humerus in that accident, triggering three initial operations that left his career in serious doubt.
A milestone fourth procedure followed in June 2022 at the Mayo Clinic, where surgeons performed a humeral osteotomy—cutting the bone and rotating it roughly 30 degrees before securing it with a new plate.
Marquez successfully rebounded to win the 2025 MotoGP title, but his injury struggles were far from over. A late-2025 collision at Indonesia damaged his right shoulder, requiring subsequent operations.
In May 2026, he underwent a seventh major surgery on that right arm area to remove displaced screws and a bone fragment that were compressing his radial nerve and causing him to lose control of the arm.
During the same hospital visit, surgeons stabilised a fracture in his right foot (fifth metatarsal) suffered during a violent high-side crash at the French Grand Prix. Marquez also famously battled repeated bouts of diplopia (double vision) caused by cranial nerve damage following major crashes in 2011, 2021, and 2022.
Marc Marquez an all-time motorsport great
Despite missing two grands prix due to recovering from his surgery earlier this year, Marquez finds himself in serious contention of a 10th world title. With five rounds remaining, he is two points shy of Aprilia's Jorge Martin.
Asked whether Marquez is as big a motorsport legend as Hamilton and Verstappen, Emmett told RacingNews365 that he believes so without hesitation.
"Yeah, I think so. I think what he's done has been remarkable," Emmett said.
"He's got [one title] as a rookie; he is the youngest ever [world champion]. He's done all these different things. He's had dominant seasons. He's had seasons where he's crashed left, right and centre. He's got character. He's got personality. He's controversial at times. He's been over-aggressive at times. He's got a lot of people who don't necessarily like him.
"He rubs some people up the wrong way, but you can't argue with the successes that he's had over the years and, in recent years, in the face of huge adversity, in the face of huge injuries that might have seen the end of other people.
"The tale you tell last year is after however many operations, to then have another, to have his arm fully rotated 30 degrees to put it back in place. That's just something that most people wouldn't even subject themselves to.
"They'd say, 'You know what? I've got my world championships. I've got my eight that I've done in my career. I'm happy with that.' No, he just has this unerring desire to win, and that does mark him out as one of the greatest."
You can watch all MotoGP sessions live on TNT Sports in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
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