By Chris Williams: If Manny Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum are so eager for a fifth fight with Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) then they need to accept a straight 50-50 deal with Marquez. I think that’s exactly what Marquez should be asking for when it comes to the negotiations for their fifth fight.
He’s already arguably beaten Pacquiao in all four fights, but only been given credit for one of them when he finally took the judges out of the game by knocking Pacquiao out cold last December.
Marquez needs to realize that Pacquiao and Arum really need him so that Pacquiao can have his credibility as a top fighter boosted back up with another decision win. Marquez is in a position of greater power than he thinks, and he needs to take full advantage of it with the Filipino and Arum.
The only way to do that is to be firm by demanding a 50-50 deal and nothing less than that. Marquez will have to be ready to walk away if they come at him with an 80-20 or 70-30 deal.
If Marquez is willing to walk away, he might be able to get his 50-50 deal, and then retire afterwards, unless Arum wants to keep trotting him out fight after fight until the boxing public gets physically sick of seeing this match-up.
Pacquiao is the one that BADLY needs the 5th fight with Marquez to erase the image in the minds of boxing fans of him being planked last December. That image is going to stay permanently burned in the minds of boxing fans unless Pacquiao can get the rematch and someone get another questionable decision that fans disagree with in masses. Marquez needs to understand how badly Pacquiao needs this fight so that he can hold firm with his 50-50 demand.
Arum is already making it pretty clear that Marquez won’t be getting a 50-50 deal in his recent interviews where he’s saying that Marquez won’t make less than what he did before. In other words, it doesn’t sound like Marquez is going to get much more than he did for the last fight.
Marquez received a guaranteed $3 million for the 4th fight with Pacquiao. That would be a nice number except that Pacquiao received a guaranteed $25 million. That’s just not right: $25 mil to $3 mil. Next time around, we need to see $14 million Marquez and $14 million Pacquiao. That would be much more like it.
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