By Manuel Perez: Now that Manny Pacquiao has a huge mega-fight with Oscar De La Hoya coming up, and possibly another big money fight following that one against Ricky Hatton, I doubt more and more that Pacquiao will ever risk facing Juan Manual Marquez (49-4-1, 36 KOs) again. Twice they’ve gone at it, with the first fight resulting in a draw and the second a close 12-round split decision win for Pacquiao in March. As much as I like Pacquiao as a fighter, I think he’s been extremely fortunate to have escaped losing to Marquez on both occasions. And because of this, I think Pacquiao is going to steer around Marquez for the remainder of his career, making sure that he stays well clear of him to avoid facing a potential embarrassing loss.

Pacquiao wants to be paid well for a bout against Marquez, and apparently he believes that Marquez simply wants too much money to make the fight possible. However, other than fights against De La Hoya or Hatton, Marquez is the only other fighter near the same size as Pacquiao that can bring in big money. Of course, Pacquiao can always continue fighting opponents bigger than him if he does well against De La Hoya, and stay in the welterweight division.

I can’t see that happening, however, because Pacquiao would have to face one of the top welterweight stars such as Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito or Paul Williams for him to get big money. A fight against either one of those fighters would be an almost guaranteed loss for Pacquiao no matter who well talented he is as a fighter.

Those fighters simply have far too much size for him, resulting in him almost definitely getting chopped down by one of them. This leaves lightweights Edwin Valero, Humberto Soto, Nate Campbell and Joan Guzman as possible opponents for Pacquiao, but I doubt that any of them, with the exception of Campbell, would bring in the big money that Marquez would. In the case of Campbell, I seriously doubt that Pacquiao would want to risk his neck fighting a tough lightweight like him.

If he did, I think Pacquiao would have chosen him immediately upon moving up to the lightweight division rather than WBC champion David Diaz, a fighter that few people hold in the same regard as the dangerous Campbell. While I can see Pacquiao fighting Valero and possibly Soto, he’d be wasting his time if his intent was getting big money. He needs to face Marquez if he wants that to happen. Perhaps after De La Hoya beats Pacquiao, we may end up seeing him turn his attention to Marquez, but I doubt it. I think Pacquiao is just afraid of Marquez after being made to look mortal twice by him.

Many sportswriters including fans in the U.S feel that Pacquiao was given a lucky break – read: given a gift decision – in the second fight and should have also lost the first fight with Marquez. Showing much better boxing skills than Pacquiao, Marquez looked to have controlled both fighters other than the rounds in which he was knocked down. It’s unfortunate, though, that Pacquiao doesn’t want to give him a rematch so that he can prove who is the better fighter between the two of them.