By Chris Williams: According to boxing news from Steve Kim, the November 12th match-up between 37-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao will now go ahead, as Golden Boy Promotions won’t be matching the offer made to Marquez by Top Rank.

Bob Arum, the promoter for Top Rank, met with Marquez to get the details of the Pacquiao fight, which will be taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Golden Boy Promotions, the previous promoters for Marquez, had the right to match the $5 million offer made to Marquez by Top Rank plus the $10 million for a rematch.

However, with the catchweight of 144 pounds that Arum had put in the contract for the Pacquiao-Marquez, in addition to the big money Marquez was guaranteed, it made it difficult for Golden Boy to match this offer because they don’t have a huge star near that weight.

This is good news for Pacquiao and Marquez fans, because they’ve been waiting for three years for this rematch to happen and now it finally is taking place. The only question is whether Marquez is too old now and too small to beat Pacquiao.

With the fight taking place at 144 instead of a weight nearer to Marquez’s 135, it gives Pacquiao a huge advantage over Marquez. But this is the best that Marquez can get. I suppose he should be happy that the fight isn’t taking place at the full 147, because they could have done with him.

Giving Marquez a tiny advantage with the weight being dropped to 144 probably won’t be nearly enough for him to win the fight. For him to have a reasonable chance of winning, the fight would have to be at 135 or close to it. Pacquiao is far too big for him now and without giving Marquez a nice catchweight handicap, which Pacquiao has benefited from in the past while fighting for major titles at welterweight and junior middleweight, Marquez doesn’t have a chance. He’s too old and too small now. He needs the handicap like Pacquiao has had going for him in some of his fights against fellow Top Rank stable fighters.