Arum: Pacquiao wasn’t focused before third Marquez fight

By Boxing News - 11/18/2012 - Comments

Image: Arum: Pacquiao wasn't focused before third Marquez fightBy Chris Williams: Both trainer Freddie Roach and promoter Bob Arum have made excuses for Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) looking so bad in his last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) last November when Pacquiao won a controversial 12 round majority decision.

Arum said “Manny was clearly not focused with marital problems. He wasn’t getting enough rest. I knew we wouldn’t see a vintage Manny in that fight and we certainly didn’t.”

So the reason why Pacquiao fought so poorly was because he wasn’t getting enough rest and he was weighed down by marital problems? That sounds kind of weak to me.

Arum and Roach have tried to explain away the horrible decision from Pacquiao by saying he was going through some marital problems that kept him from putting his full concentration on the fight. The excuses might have been held water had Pacquiao looked sensational in his next fight, but he looked just as bad, losing to Tim Bradley. After that loss the excuses from Arum and Roach don’t seem to hold as much weight.

I’m okay with believing an excuse every now and then but Pacquiao has looked bad in his last three fights. I’ve heard other excuses about leg cramps, shoes being too tight, and the training not being as hard as it used to be. Now it’s marital problems and Pacquiao not sleeping enough. It sounds like a nice long list of excuses that are starting to pile up.

You know when a fighters older their performance starts to drop off. That’s a natural part of aging and when you add in all the wars that Pacquiao has had in the last 8 years, that probably is good explanation as to why he’s not performing like he once did. But to blame it on marital problems and not getting enough sleep? No, I don’t buy that for a second. But I guess we’re going to continue to see a whole list of excuses coming up for when Pacquiao fails to impress on December 8th.

I can see Pacquiao getting a controversial decision win in this fight, but I don’t think boxing fans will agree with it just as they didn’t agree with the first three fights between Pacquiao and Marquez. It just gets worse with every fight with Marquez out-boxing Pacquiao and then judges still giving it to him regardless.



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