Atlas: I don’t see Pacquiao fighting Marquez again; there’s some erosion there with Manny

By Chris Williams: ESPN analyst and trainer Teddy Atlas doesn’t see World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao opting to take a fourth fight with Juan Manuel Marquez after going life and death with him in a questionable 12 round decision win last month. Atlas saw some mental/or physical erosion in Pacquiao’s game and felt he lost that fight or should have lost it.

Atlas told fighthype.com “I don’t think you’re going to see a fourth fight. I don’t think Pacquiao is going to go there again…I didn’t see Pacquiao take chances…I think you saw a little bit of that erosion; that erosion from the mental and physical standpoint.”

Atlas is just now just noticing this? Pacquiao hasn’t looked like the same fighter he once was since his win over Miguel Cotto years ago. That was the last time he was light on his feet, showing a killer instinct and looking blazing fast. Since then, Pacquiao has looked like he’s got heavy legs with weights attached, and he only plods now.

And when you look at Pacquiao in between rounds, he looks completely exhausted even when he’s totally dominating the fodder that his promoter Bob Arum is feeding him. He looks tired, old and is fighting more like old heavyweight rather than a tiny welterweight. I know they’ve been talking cramps in Pacquiao’s legs but I don’t buy it. How can you have cramps for four consecutive fights? That’s age we’re talking about.

Maybe Pacquiao do an experiment of dumping his trainer Alex Ariza for one fight, cutting down on the eating and exercise and move down to 140 or 135. If the cramps are still there, then that’s age. But without eliminating something from his routine, Pacquiao will never know for sure. I think it’s age rearing its ugly head. The old body is starting to slow down now that Pacquiao is 33. That’s a young age for some people, but I’ve seen people at that age that looked and fought like they were 45. It’s weird how that goes. It probably isn’t helping Pacquiao that he’s having to power feed to artificially stay at welterweight.

You know what they say about eating a lot aging your body. Supposedly if you eat less you slow down your aging. Don’t know why Arum is keeping Pacquiao at 147 when it’s like having a candle burning twice as bright but lasting half as long. He should have just had him move up briefly to knock off some of his stable fighters and then move back down. Or better yet, have them starve themselves down to fight Pacquiao at his weight.

I think Arum needs to put Pacquiao in with Floyd Mayweather Jr. quickly in a cash out fight so that they can get big bank while Pacquiao is still cogent. If Arum lets it marinate for too much longer, he’s going to spoil the broth because Pacquiao will be shot to pieces and will start losing to Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters. You know things are bad when he starts losing to them. Arum will have to give away tickets to Pacquiao-Mayweather once Pacquiao is whipped once or twice by one of Arum’s fighters. Arum will be kicking himself for ruining the broth again like he did with the Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa fight.

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