Why doesn’t Pacquiao fight Marquez at a catch weight?

By Boxing News - 08/03/2010 - Comments

Image: Why doesn’t Pacquiao fight Marquez at a catch weight?By Dave Lahr: Since we’ve already seen that Manny Pacquiao has no issue with fighting different opponents at catch weights, so why not have Pacquiao fight Juan Manuel Marquez at a catch weight? If it’s good enough for Pacquiao, then it should be more than good enough for one of his opponents to use in a fight with him. Pacquiao’s loyal boxing fans say it’s too hard for him to fight below 140 now that he’s fighting at 147. I find that hard to believe.

How is that Pacquiao can’t take off a little weight to make a fight with someone who many people think beat him twice? I think Pacquiao can take the weight off and I see no reason why Marquez and Pacquiao can’t fight at a catch weight of 138.

Marquez isn’t a light welterweight and he’s surely not a welterweight. It seems only fair then that Pacquiao fight Marquez at catch weight where Pacquiao is the one who has to strip off weight instead of his opponents. It’s seems ridiculous that only Pacquiao’s opponents be the one to have to take off weight to fight him at a catch weight rather than Pacquiao.

Bob Arum is matching Pacquiao up with Antonio Margarito in November, in a fight that’s really two years too late. The interest in that fight would have been high back in 2008, but not so much now. At any rate, Pacquiao is fighting Margarito next, but after that fight Pacquiao will have an open schedule for a fight against Marquez.

Forget about the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Pacquiao fight next year or ever. It isn’t going to happen. This is why Pacquiao needs to fight Marquez next and get it over with so that he can prove that he’s better than him. Right now, I see Marquez as the better fighter based on their two prior fights. And I don’t care that Pacquiao beat a weight drained Oscar De La Hoya, a defenseless Ricky Hatton, a punching bag in Joshua Clottey and a recently destroyed Miguel Cotto.

Marquez showed in his two fights with Pacquiao that he has his number. This is why Pacquiao needs to fight him and prove that he’s better. I never understood why Pacquiao didn’t give Marquez an immediate rematch in 2008 after their second fight.

Instead of fighting Marquez again, Pacquiao went and fought David Diaz, who many people saw as a paper champion at lightweight. Pacquiao needed to step back up and try to beat Marquez and show that he was better. He didn’t and instead has taken on a number of fighters that mostly have recently beaten at the time that Pacquiao fought them.



Comments are closed.