By Chris Williams: Former WBO light welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) says his goal is to get the Manny Pacquiao fight for September by beating the 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Forum, in Inglewood, California, USA. While Bob Arum of Top Rank has matched up many of his other 140 and 147 pound fighters in his Top Rank stable with Pacquiao in order to increase their popularity and bring in new blood, Arum skipped over Alvarado for some reason.
It could be that Alvarado, before he was beaten by Ruslan Provodnikov, was considered to be too much of a grueling fight for Pacquiao due to the power that he possesses and because of his size. Whatever the case, Alvarado is poised to finally get a huge payday fight against Pacquiao, provided that he beats Marquez on Saturday.
“That’s huge [a fight between him and Pacquiao]. That’s the goal,” Alvarado said.
Alvarado needs to win and look good, because there’s still a chance that Arum will go in another direction even if Alvarado wins the fight, because the Alvarado-Marquez fight isn’t an official WBO welterweight title eliminator. That means that Arum can choose to match Pacquiao against Marquez in September, even if Marquez loses to the fight to Alvarado. It would look really bad if Arum does that, but it’s quite possible that we could see a scenario like that take place unless Alvarado soundly beats Marquez to the point where he looks like an old man.
“Whatever I have to do to win this fight,” Alvarado said. “In his last two fights, he [Marquez] wasn’t as sharp as he should be. He’s top heavy. His age, his wars and everything he’s been through in his career [could work against him in this fight]. That [Alvarado’s size] could come into play as long as I utilize it the right way.”
Alvarado will be a nightmare for the aging Pacquiao with his size, power, youth and combination punching. I would give Alvarado a good chance of knocking Pacquiao clean out if Arum let’s Alvarado have that fight. Tim Bradley had Pacquiao stunned in their rematch last April, and he can’t punch. But Alvarado hits harder than Marquez, and he would be hitting Pacquiao with bigger shots that the one that Marquez knocked Pacquiao out with in 2012.
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