By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao is still working on damage control over his dismal performance against Juan Manuel Marquez last November. Instead of just coming out and saying that Marquez had his number on that night; Pacquiao is making excuses for the fight and blaming it on problems in his life.
Pacquiao said this in a recent conference call about his questionable win: “I was having some family problems…I did have some family issues that I had to deal with. I also underestimated him.”
That’s pretty funny and also hard to believe, because how can Pacquiao underestimate a fighter that gave him pure hell in two previous fights? Did Pacquiao think that because Marquez was now 38, he’d be no threat to him anymore? I doubt it. I think Pacquiao trained like he always had in the past, but it wasn’t good enough to keep Marquez from countering him each time he’d look to throw a shot. Marquez was always waiting to return fire, and he definitely landed the much cleaner shots throughout the fight. Pacquaio ended up winning the fight by two judges giving him the win, but boxing fans saw him losing the fight.
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, also joined in with the excuse making for the Marquez fight, saying “We [Pacquiao] had a great training camp going into that fight, but on the last week everything fell apart. The personal problems affected the fight and I don’t think Manny will let that happen again.”
I don’t know about you, but that sure sounds like Roach is making excuses for his fighter not doing what he needed to do in the Marquez fight. Maybe if Roach had taught Pacquiao some more skills he wouldn’t have been beaten like he was against Marquez.
Pacquiao sure looked ready to me, and judging by his strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, he was ready for the fight. I’m sure Pacquiao wasn’t thinking about distractions when Marquez was throwing punches at him. How could he? Who thinks about other stuff when they’re fighting? I just think Pacquiao fought a superior fighter and got exposed again like the other two times he fought Marquez.
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