Roach: A win for Pacquiao over Marquez will get us closer to a Mayweather fight

By Boxing News - 08/09/2013 - Comments

roach1By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach thinks the key to his fighter Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) getting a long awaited mega fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) is if Pacquiao is able to get a 5th fight with Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) and knock him out.

Roach thinks the boxing world will be impressed by that, and in turn Mayweather Jr. will agree to fight Pacquiao. It sounds like a lot of ifs and wishful thinking involved for Roach, because Pacquiao has his hands full just trying to get past his next opponent Brandon Rios on November 23rd without Roach looking past him towards a revenge match against Marquez.

Roach said to Fightfubtv “I think if Manny’s impressive and wins by a knockout and he impressed the world, I think people will start talking about that fight [Mayweather] again…I think that a win over Marquez would push us a little bit closer…I think we deserve one more shot…but if he doesn’t fight us, I think he’s a p***y.”

How many times does Marquez have to beat Manny before Roach gets a clue that the Mexican warrior is too good for his fighter? I had Marquez winning all four fights. The first fight was scored a draw, but I had Marquez winning the last 11 rounds of that fight after getting knocked down three times in the first.

I definitely had Marquez beating Pacquiao in 2008 and 2011. I thought those fighters were scored poorly by the judges, as there’s no way you can look at those fights and not see that Marquez did more than enough to deserve the victory.

Pacquiao probably isn’t going to get a 5th fight with Marquez unless Bob Arum opens up his pocket book to give Marquez an offer he can’t refuse. Instead of a 76/24 purse split in favor or Pacquiao, he’s probably going to need to make it 50-50 this time in order to get Marquez to say yes to that fight. Will Pacquiao and Arum agree to give Marquez parity for the fight in terms of the purse split.

I can’t see it happening, and for that reason I don’t think Pacquiao will get an opportunity to try and avenge his loss. However, it might be better off that Pacquiao not fight Marquez again, because if he fights him a 5th time and gets knocked cold again, it’ll make Arum’s job more difficult trying to promote Pacquiao’s other fights.

If Pacquiao loses to Brandon Rios on November 23rd, and then gets beaten by Marquez, that would be 4 straight defeats. How is Arum going to sell Pacquiao’s fights on PPV with him having lost his last four fights?



Comments are closed.