Beristain wants to work on Marquez’s speed for Pacquiao bout

By Boxing News - 09/27/2012 - Comments

Image: Beristain wants to work on Marquez's speed for Pacquiao boutBy Chris Williams: Nacho Beristain, the trainer for legendary fighter Juan Manuel Marquez, wants to work on Marquez’s speed for his upcoming fourth fight with Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao December 8th in Las Vegas, Nevada. Beristain wants to get the 39-year-old Marquez as fast as possible in order to cope with the hand speed of Pacquiao.

Beristain said to Primerahora.com “We want to increase his [Marquez] speed a little more to see if we can keep it in the last third of the fight and then put him [Pacquiao] down on the canvas.”

Beristain would be wise to work on Marquez’s speed, but it’s not the end all because he already proved in the past three fights that he’s got more than enough hand speed to deal with what Pacquiao is bringing. But Beristain would be better off working on getting Marquez to throw more combinations so that he can knock Pacquiao out to ensure that Marquez gets a win this time. It’s obviously not enough that he’s out-boxed Pacquiao three consecutive times without winning of the fights. It might take a KO for Marquez to guarantee that he gets the win, because the judges aren’t valuing what he’s been doing in the ring.

The only fight where Marquez had problems with an opponents hand speed was in his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2009. Marquez just wasn’t quick enough and had problems landing his shots all night long due to his lack of hand speed and Mayweather’s excellent defensive skills. That was a special, though, because Mayweather Jr. is so good and isn’t sloppy like Pacquiao. Marquez had bulked up for that fight and put on too much useless weight too quickly with much of the weight being fat that you could see hanging off his sides. That was a big mistake for Marquez to add weight for the fight. He would have been better off had he simply come into the fight like he was training for a lightweight bout but without draining himself to make weight.

Marquez did a great job of adding weight for the last Pacquiao fight last December, because he put on the exact amount of muscle weight to be effective against the Filipino and he fought beautifully. Marquez has to be careful that he doesn’t go overboard in packing on muscle this time because he doesn’t need to be slow for Pacquiao like he was against Mayweather.

With Pacquiao, all Marquez needs to do is worry about keeping his work rate high and fighting hard for three minutes of every round, as Pacquiao doesn’t seem to be capable of letting his hands go like he used to or working hard for the full three minutes. Marquez has the advantage in skills and ring IQ over the Filipino, but he just needs to do his part by coming forward a little more and throwing more shots. Pacquiao will still give Marquez plenty of opportunities for him to land his counter punches with all the mistakes that Pacquiao makes when throwing his shots.



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