By Chris Williams: There is little question that lightweight Juan Manuel Marquez is one of the best fighters on earth in his weight class. He may not have the following that Manny Pacquiao has, but he basically beat Pacquiao in their two fights despite not getting the wins in either of those bouts. Marquez is likely going to be the next opponent for Pacquiao unless Golden Boy Promotions throws a monkey wrench in the plans for this fight.

Marquez is ready to fight Pacquiao at almost the full weight for the welterweight class at 144. This means that Pacquiao, who regularly fights at 145, is coming down one whole pound to fight Marquez. It’s nice that Pacquiao is giving in so much for this catchweight fight. Ideally, the fight should be taking place at 140, since that would be meeting Marquez halfway because he fights at 135.

Instead, we get Pacquiao coming down one pound and Marquez moving up nine pounds. Anyway, Marquez, in an article at examiner.com, is finally revealing after these years the secrets to beating Pacquiao. Marquez said “You have to match his rhythm. You have to match his speed with speed and when he throws punches, you have to counter-punch with the same velocity.” There it is. This is what Marquez did in his two fights with Pacquiao that made the Filipino fighter struggle and looked terrible.

I had Marquez winning both fights, by the way. Pacquiao just didn’t have an answer for Marquez’s counter punching and ended up looking bad in both fights. Pacquiao got what I consider a gift draw in their first fight in 2004, and then he won a very, very, very questionable 12 round split decision in their second fight in 2008. I had Marquez winning that one by four rounds. It wasn’t even close.