By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach badly wants to have his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO’s) get a 5th fight against the soon to 41-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s), because Roach thinks Marquez has aged and deteriorated somewhat since knocking his fighter Pacquiao out cold two years ago in 2012. Roach believes that Pacquiao can beat Marquez now, and he thinks the fight will bring in over 1 million pay-per-view buys on HBO as well.
Pacquiao hasn’t brought in over 1 million PPV buys since 2011. Boxing fans don’t know what the PPV numbers were for Pacquiao’s April 12th rematch against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley, because for some reason they still haven’t been released despite the fact that it’s been almost a month since the Pacquiao-Bradley 2 fight took place.
Marquez will be facing former WBO light welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) this month on May 17th at the Forum, in Inglewood, California, USA. The winner of the Marquez-Alvarado fight is expected to fight Pacquiao for his WBO strap. Bob Arum of Top Rank, and Roach both seem to like the idea of a Pacquiao-Marquez 5th fight.
Roach thinks Marquez should be able to beat Alvarado.
“Marquez looked like an old man against Bradley, slow, heavy,” Roach said. “If Marquez wins, I think he fights Manny in the U.S. If Alvarado wins, Bob will probably put the fight against Manny in Macau. They [Pacquiao and Marquez] know each other so well. This time, Manny will win decisively. Manny’s a much smarter fighter now.”
I remember Roach saying pretty much the same thing the last time Pacquiao fought Marquez in 2012, and what we saw was Marquez knocking Pacquiao out after Roach came up with the brilliant idea that Pacquiao should fight aggressively like he was a 25-year-old. I think Pacquiao lost all four of the previous Marquez fights, and at this point it’s pretty much academic that Marquez proved himself to be the better fighter than Pacquiao. The only thing that Pacquiao will prove now is that he can beat a 41-year-old fighter. Some victory that’ll be.
Pacquiao looked worse in his last fight against Bradley than he has in years, as far as I’m concerned. Bradley shook Pacquiao up with a right hand in the 4th round, and if he punch, he would have likely knocked Pacquiao out cold the way Marquez did. I didn’t see where Pacquiao showed that he’s a smarter fighter now than he was in the past. It looked like the same Pacquiao to me except where he buzzed by a shot from the light hitting Bradley.
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