Marquez vs. Pacquiao on November 10th, says promoter
By Chris Williams: Well, it looks like WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley is going to be left out in the cold as far as a rematch against his conquered victim 33-year-old Manny Pacquiao.
Instead of facing Bradley on November 10th in a rematch to try and avenge his loss, Pacquiao will be facing 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) on November 10th, according to Marquez’s promoter Fernando Beltran of Zanfer Promotions.
Beltran told ESPN that Marquez will face Pacquiao in possibly Mexico City or Las Vegas, Nevada.
Now why would Pacquiao choose to fight Marquez again rather than trying to avenge his recent loss to Bradley. I’ve got a couple of theories and they are as follows:
1. Bradley’s style of boxing make is difficult for Pacquiao to win a decision against him because he uses movement instead of standing in one place like most of Pacquiao’s opposition has foolishly done in the past three years. A rematch against Bradley is probably too dangerous because a second loss to him would likely put a damper on the money gravy train. One loss is a big blow to Pacquiao’s career, but a second loss would be much, much worse for the Filipino fighter. You can imagine that droves of boxing fans would no longer be interested in watching Pacquiao fight on pay-per-view if he loses again to Bradley. What better way to avoid that from happening then by choosing not to fight Bradley again and finding someone a lot more stationary like Marquez.
2. The Bradley-Pacquiao fight likely didn’t bring in big numbers on PPV, and Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, wants to make sure he maximizes the amount of cash that can be made with each of Pacquiao’s fights. If Bradley didn’t bring in the big money, then you can expect Arum not to have much interest in putting Pacquiao in with him again. In this case, it might be better for Pacquiao to be steered around him and aimed at other fighters. At this point, Pacquiao no longer needs a strap in order to draw big numbers on PPV. The belt is meaningless.
Marquez is still good enough to beat Pacquiao, so this could backfire on Arum if he makes this fight. Already a lot of boxing fans think that Pacquiao lost all three fights with Marquez in the past. It’s not hard to imagine that he’ll lose this fight unless we get some more controversial judging scores like we did the last time Pacquiao fought Marquez last November.