By Chris Williams: Dan Rafael of ESPN thinks Manny Pacquiao’s team aren’t particularly interested in seeing him back in the ring with Mexican warrior Juan Manuel Marquez so soon for his next fight.
They’d rather see Pacquiao fight someone else instead, which makes a lot of sense given how badly Pacquiao was knocked out by Marquez last December. Pacquiao was knocked out cold by a right hand in the 6th round in that fight, and he was earlier knocked down by a big thudding right hand shot in the 3rd.
Rafael said on his chat at ESPN: “Pacquiao side is not so keen on an immediate rematch with Marquez either. I think both sides just think it might better overall to do something different next. I cant argue with that.”
Marquez would be a dangerous fight for Pacquiao right now because of his counter punching ability and power. Pacquiao would be getting hit with a lot of hard shots that he wouldn’t necessarily see coming at him, and that would be a recipe for disaster.
Marquez has gotten stronger, so that the punches that he was always able to land in the past are having more of an effect on Pacquiao than they did in the past. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum would like nothing more than to put the Filipino back in with Marquez because of all the loot the fight would make, but it could come at a high cost with Pacquiao getting knocked out cold for a second time.
It’s best that Pacquiao take a safer route by looking to face one of Arum’s other Top Rank stable fighters or better yet, fight someone outside of the stable that would get him back on the winning track without him having to go life and death with them.
Arum’s Top Rank fighters might be too dangerous for Pacquiao at this point in his career. Mike Alvarado and Brandon Rios would be pure trouble for Pacquiao due to their power, and Tim Bradley and Jessie Vargas could be potential problems for Pacquiao because they might be able to out-box him.
Pacquiao should tell Arum he wants none of those guys and instead look to fight someone else like Devon Alexander, Ruslan Provodnikov or Kell Brook. What Pacquiao should insist on is having Arum match him against one of Golden Boy’s fighters because there are a lot of interesting fighters that Pacqiuiao could fight like Marcos Maidana, Amir Khan, and Victor Ortiz. Those are much better fights than facing Rios, Alvarado or Bradley.
Comments are closed.