Marquez leaves door open for 5th Pacquiao fight

By Neil Jason Blake - 06/22/2013 - Comments

marquez5by Miguel Alejandro Lopez: Weeks after his decisive win over Manny Pacquiao, Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez reiterated his firm stance that he will never fight his Filipino rival ever again — no matter how much money is offered or regardless of what any promoter would say. With that solid statement, Team Pacquiao decided to move on from the Marquez saga as well.

However in a recent interview with LA Times Report, Marquez contradicted his previous position on the issue, and actually said he is now willing to fight Pacquiao again for a fifth time. The only condition is that the fight should take place in his native country of Mexico.

There is a very compelling reason why Marquez suddenly softened up on his stance on not fighting Pacquiao ever again. He realized (possibly too late) that in an effort to bargain for more purse money in the fifth Pacman fight, he lost all of his bargaining power because Pacquiao decided not to chase him. Now Marquez is thinking that if he loses against Bradley on October, there will be no future for him in boxing, and the only person in the world who can revive his career is another fight with the eight division world champ. Mayweather won’t rematch Marquez either (especially with his newly found KO punching power). Pacquiao is all that Juan has left.

The second reason why Marquez suddenly changed his mind is because all the talk about him refusing to fight the Pacman again is absolutely hurting his career. Majority of boxing fans agree that refusing to give another chance to someone who gave you three rematches in the past is considered un-gentlemanlike behavior. Marquez doesn’t want to retire being branded as a ducker and a one punch “lucky” KO puncher.

While the strong Mexican tries to pretend he is not interested with $13 Million, that amount of money is something he has never made before in his career. He was hoping Team Pacquiao will chase him and give him $20 Million, but unfortunately, the Filipino called his bluff. So the only option for Marquez now is to leave the door open for a fifth fight, but this time, he will possibly be offered only $6 Million or a whole lot  less.



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