Roach says Pacquiao-Marquez III would sell

By Boxing News - 05/10/2011 - Comments

Image: Roach says Pacquiao-Marquez III would sellBy Chris Williams: Freddie Roach likes the idea of a Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez III fight, and sees it as a fight that would sell with boxing public. Marquez, 37, wants the fight with Pacquiao. His contract with Golden Boy Promotions expired recently, and there’s talk that Marquez could sign with Pacquiao’s promotional company Top Rank, which would make this another in house fight for Pacquiao.

However, Golden Boy Promotions has the right to match the offer made by Top Rank. If that’s the case, we likely won’t be seeing Pacquiao vs. Marquez. Roach, however, is hoping the fight can be made because he sees dollar signs with this fight.

In an article at tempo.com, Roach said :This fight would sell. I think Manny has really progressed a long way since they fought a long time ago. I just want the fight to shut [Marquez] up and settle the score.”

At this point it really wouldn’t settle anything if Pacquiao beat Marquez, because Pacquiao is bigger now and Marquez is nearly 40-years-old. All it will prove is that Pacquiao can beat a guy that is 38-years-old and smaller than him now that Pacquiao has put on a lot of weight in the last few years. What we do know is when the two fighters were both the same size and Marquez was still pretty much in his prime, he appeared to get the better of Pacquiao in they’re two fights. Taking away the knockdowns in those two fights, Marquez won more rounds and showed that he was the better fighter than Pacquiao.

The first fight in 2004 was ruled a 12 round draw, and the second fight was a very, very questionable 12 round split decision win for Pacquiao. A lot of boxing fans, this writer included, saw Marquez winning both of those fights. But if Pacquiao beats the nearly 40-year-old smaller Marquez at this point, it won’t mean that Pacquiao was the better fighter in the series. It just means that Marquez got old and Pacquiao moved out of his weight class. In case you haven’t noticed, Marquez is being asked to move up to welterweight to fight Pacquiao instead of Pacquiao moving back down to lightweight so that the two fighters will be the same size. Marquez won’t be as big as Pacquiao even if he moves up to 147, because much of the weight that Marquez will put on for the fight will be fat and not muscle. As a result, a win for Pacquiao over Marquez in a third fight proves little.



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