By Chris Williams: 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez refuses to let WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao wait him out until he gets too old to fight before giving Marquez a rematch.

Marquez doesn’t want to end up like 40-year-old Shane Mosley, who couldn’t get a fight with Pacquiao until he aged to the point where he was no longer the same fighter and was easily beaten by Pacquiao earlier this year.

Marquez is saying that unless Pacquiao fights him in 2012 then he can forget completely all about fighting him beyond that point.

As quoted by boxingtribune.com, Marquez said “After the first Pacquiao fight I had to wait four years, and after the second , three more years passed. That’s what if the fourth fight isn’t signed in 2012, there won’t be another fight.”

I think Marquez is being smart about this. If lets Arum and Pacquiao wait another two to three years before giving him another rematch, Marquez will likely be too old to beat Pacquiao again.

As it is, he’s clearly beaten him in three fights but has been given the decisions. It’s tough when you’re fighting boxing’s cash cow. It’s like giving Pacquiao four rounds in the bank at the start of the fight.

Marquez wanted an immediate rematch after their first fight in 2004 but couldn’t get Arum and Pacquiao to show any interest until 2008. Then when Marquez against got the better of Pacquiao, he was handed a loss and had to wait three more years.

Some people think the delay was made in hopes that Marquez would have lost something and would be more vulnerable against Pacquiao. But as we saw recently, Marquez is still better than Pacquiao.
Marquez is in the running for Pacquiao’s next fight but not likely to get the fight.

Arum has some of his Top Rank fighters Miguel Cotto and Timothy Bradley in on the competition for the fight and it’s likely Cotto will get the fight rather than Marquez. It’s too bad because it would be great to see a fourth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez. I personally think Marquez has fought Pacquiao for the last time and won’t get another rematch. He’s too good and exposed Pacquiao for the final time. They won’t let that happen again and risk having the money flow stop by a Pacquiao loss.