Roach wants Pacquiao to face Marquez at a 145 pound catch-weight

By Boxing News - 11/18/2009 - Comments

pac3322By Manuel Perez: I thought the catch weight bouts for Manny Pacquiao were done and finished with his fight with World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Miguel Cotto last weekend, but I guess I’m wrong. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach, in an article with Philstar, said “ Maybe we can do Marquez one more time and give him a rematch…It will definitely be a big fight.” Roach is speaking of Juan Manuel Marquez as a backup plan to use in case a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t materialize for one reason or another.

This would be great news if Pacquiao fights Marquez. The two have fought twice and both fights have ended up in controversial outcomes. The first fight ended up in a 12 round draw and the 2nd fight resulted in an even more controversial 12 round split decision win for Pacquiao. Many people felt that Marquez won the fight.

The one problem for a rematch is that Roach is talking about the fight taking place at 145 pounds. Frankly, I think that sucks. Marquez already showed against Mayweather that he doesn’t have the frame to carry 144 pounds without being drastically slowed down because of it.

But by Roach wanting the fight to take place at 145, it’s as good as saying that wants Pacquiao to have a huge advantage in the fight. I’m tired of these catch weight fights. He did it with Cotto, and although the fight against Oscar De La Hoya wasn’t at a catch weight, it might as well have been because De La Hoya had to come down to 147 for the fight, a weight he hadn’t fought in years.

Marquez won’t have any say in the matter, because he’s not the more popular fighter and doesn’t have the title. He’ll take the fight anyway he can get it if they offer it to him. But that doesn’t mean it will be fair to Marquez. We already saw that Marquez is too small to fight in the mid 140s, so why fight him at that weight? If Pacquiao wants to fight Marquez, why not fight him at super featherweight (130)? I’ll tell you why, because Marquez would be quick and dangerous at that weight and it would be curtains for Pacquiao.

Roach also is looking at Pacquiao fighting the winner of the January fight between WBA welterweight champion Shane Mosley and WBC welterweight title holder Andre Berto. “Maybe the winner of that Mosley-Berto fight can be a great fighter for Manny.” Well, you can figure the winner of that fight will be Mosley, who Pacquiao should have fought last Saturday night instead of Cotto. I’m not holding my breath on Pacquiao fighting Mosley anytime soon.



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