By Eric Thomas: The latest word on a potential third rubber match between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez looks as if it won’t be happening if Marquez loses to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their July 18th according to an article from the LA Times. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum doesn’t see the value in Pacquiao fighting Marquez if Juan is beaten by Mayweather, because a loss would mean that a fight with Juan wouldn’t be a mega fight, and that is what Pacquiao is interested in at this point in his career.
It’s bad news for Marquez, because he’s been looking for a rematch for over a year since his controversial 12 round split decision loss to Pacquiao last year in March.
In that fight, Marquez dominated most of the rounds of the fight and looked to be on his way to winning by a decisive 12 round decision when Marquez was dropped in the 11th by Pacquiao. Even with the knockdown, Marquez appeared to win by one to two rounds, but the judges’ ended up giving it to the more popular fighter.
Neither Pacquiao or Marquez figure to beat Mayweather because of their size disadvantage, which is what makes it so disappointing that Marquez won’t be getting a rematch with Pacquiao if he’s defeated by Mayweather.
Pacquiao may soon be finding himself on the losing end of the stick against Mayweather as well, so what is Pacquiao and Arum going to be doing then? I can’t imagine that Pacquiao would still be getting mega fights if he’s soundly beaten by Mayweather.
However, the boxing public are often very loyal to their hero’s and they could very well keep flocking o see Pacquiao fight for some time to come regardless of how often he’s beaten. It would seem likely that Arum will try and set up fights with Shane Mosley or more specifically Miguel Cotton rather than to give Marquez a much needed shot against Pacquiao.
Based on reports that have come out recently, Pacquiao is supposedly thinking about retiring after one or two more fights, but that seems highly unlikely. Win or lose, Pacquiao will probably keep fighting for as long as he can maybe as long another four to five years if he’s still mostly successful.
The money is too good and Pacquiao has a lot of responsibilities in his homeland as a national hero to give up the sport so soon if he’s still even remotely successful. My guess is that Pacquiao may end up fighting Marquez in the future despite what his current promoter says he will.
If Pacquiao fails to fight Marquez one more time it will be Manny who will suffer for it, because many of the more knowledgeable boxing fans will see Pacquiao as ducking Marquez.
It wouldn’t be the first time that a fighter has done this before, but thus far Pacquiao has been immune to this claim because he’s always been willing to fight the best. Let’s hope Pacquiao does the right thing regardless of whether or not Marquez is beaten by Mayweather on July 18th.
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