Arum: Pacquiao to fight Marquez in November

By Boxing News - 05/08/2011 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: After tonight’s mismatch between Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) and the 39-year-old shot-looking Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bob Arum, the promoter for Pacquiao, said that he’s looking to match Pacquiao against 37-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KO’s) on either November 5th or November 12th of this year. Arum met with Marquez earlier on Saturday to discuss a fight with him and Marquez.

The Mexican fighter will now review the offer and make a decision soon. If Marquez decides not to take the fight, the next option will be for Pacquiao to fight WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 KO’s). Bradley’s contract with Gary Shaw is set to expire today, Sunday. And if that fight can’t be made, which is hard to believe, then a fight between Pacquiao and IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah will be the next option.

The Marquez fight is likely going to happen next, though, as Arum really wants that fight, as does Marquez. The one thing about this fight is the timing. It’s more than a little disappointing that the fight will be taking place three years after the last fight between the two fighters, as Marquez isn’t the same fighter he was back in 2008, when he lost a controversial 12 round split decision to Pacquiao. They also fought in 2004, a fight that resulted in a 12 round draw. But to fight Marquez now, the fight would have to be held at a catchweight for it to be even remotely competitive. Pacquiao has packed on a lot of muscle since there last fight and has basically out-grown Marquez.

Besides the size factor, Marquez is now nearing 40, and he’s not the same fighter he was back in 2008. It’s nice that they’re finally thinking of fighting Marquez, but like the bout against Mosley, it’s too bad that it took until they were both on the decline before Pacquiao would fight them. Perhaps a better fight than Marquez, Bradley and Judah would be a fight against Victor Ortiz or one of the other welterweights, such as Andre Berto or Mike Jones.

Bradley will be too small to fight at welterweight, and presumably, that’s what he would be expected to do. The same goes for Judah. Although he once fought at welterweight for a number of years, he showed again and again that he wasn’t suited for that weight in loses to Carlos Baldomir, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey. Putting Judah in with Pacquiao would be a terrible mismatch, even worse than the Pacquiao-Mosley bout, which was a mismatch on paper going into the fight.



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