By Dan Ambrose: 37-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez has officially signed to face WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao on November 12th in a 144 pound catchweight fight that will likely be taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The only thing that will prevent the Marquez-Pacquiao III fight from going ahead now is if Marquez loses his scheduled 2nd tune-up bout against former World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight champion David Diaz (36-3-1, 17 KO’s) in Mexico City.

Bob Arum of Top Rank, the promoter for Pacquiao, says that if Marquez loses to Diaz, the Pacquiao is off. However, the chances of Marquez losing to Diaz are incredibly slim. Diaz has lost two out of his last four fights and would seem to be an almost certain win for Marquez.

Marquez is guaranteed $5 million for the Pacquiao fight plus an upside of the pay per view profits. Where it gets really interesting is if Marquez is somehow able to beat Pacquiao. If Marquez can defeat Pacquiao, he would be guaranteed a huge $10 million guaranteed plus and upside of the PPV profits. Needless to say, Marquez has a lot to gain if he can beat Pacquiao and he must be eager to make this happen. Marquez and Pacquiao have fought twice in the past with the first bout resulting in a 12 round draw and the second one with Pacquiao barely edging Marquez with a 12 round split decision. Now three years later, both fighters are still at the top of their games. Marquez is considered to be the best fighter in the lightweight division, while Pacquiao is the best at welterweight. Their two fights were highly entertaining bouts. Pacquiao has become much more popular since they last fought three years ago. However, Pacquiao hasn’t been involved in an exciting fight since then unfortunately. His fights since then have turned out to be mismatches with Pacquiao beating up on the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey, Antonio Margarito and Mosley. The knock on Pacquiao is that he’s been matched against struggling fighters, ones that have come off of recent losses and additionally – in some cases – fought him at a catchweight.

It’s unknown yet if Showtime will be the one carrying the Marquez-Pacquiao III PPV fight or if HBO will get it. Showtime was the one that showed Pacquiao’s fight against 39-year-old Shane Mosley and the fight supposedly did well, even though there still hasn’t been any final PPV numbers given.