Pacquiao to fight next on April 20th, Rios still a possibility if not Marquez

By Boxing News - 12/10/2012 - Comments

Image: Pacquiao to fight next on April 20th, Rios still a possibility if not MarquezBy Allan Fox: The recently defeated Manny Pacquiao will reportedly be back in the ring on April 20th with his already scheduled fight date. That’s a quick turnaround date for a fighter that was knocked out as viciously as Pacquiao was by Juan Manuel Marquez in his 6th round knockout loss. That’s only four months in between fights. Pacquiao’s head won’t have much time to rest from the KO loss, and he might get knocked out even quicker if Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum sticks with the April date.

There’s no word yet whether Marquez will accept a 5th fight with him, as there’s talk that Marquez is considering retirement. Brandon Rios was supposed to be fighting the winner of the Paquiao-Marquez 4 fight, but in this case he could be facing the loser in Pacquiao. This would still be an interesting fight even with Pacquiao having been knocked out by Marquez last Saturday. Rios has good power, an exciting style of fighting, and he’s one of those guys that only fights in one direction – forward. Rios isn’t a counter puncher like Marquez, so Pacquiao wouldn’t have to worry about that from him.

The only thing that Pacquiao would have to be concerned with is his ability to take Rios’ hard shots. Rios doesn’t hit with the same kind of power that Marquez does but he throws a lot of punches and it wears his opponents down over time. Pacquiao’s chin may be vulnerable after his knockout loss to Marquez, and this would be a really dangerous opponent for someone coming off the kind of knockout loss that Pacquiao is.

Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum only wants to put him in big fights, and this means there’s not going to be a break for Pacquiao to get an easy fight so that he can recover a little from the knockout. It would be better for Pacquiao to fight a light puncher like Tim Bradley next rather than getting in the ring with a fighter that has good power like Rios. Arum wasn’t happy with the less than huge pay per view numbers for the Pacquiao-Bradley fight last June, so that’s probably going to keep him from steering Pacquiao to the easier fight against Bradley.



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