By John F. McKenna (McJack): When former eight division champion Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) enters the ring against WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) on December 8 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas it’s clear that the future of his boxing career will be on the line. Nearly everyone would have to concede that the loss Manny suffered at the hands of WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (29-0-1 NC, 12 KO’s) last June was due a fluke and a horrendous decision.

By the same token, most boxing fans and pundits believe that Manny was fortunate to escape with the decision against “El Dinamita” last November. Even many of Pacquiao’s ardent supporters back in the Philippines believe that he lost in the Trilogy fight against Marquez. For that reason Pacquiao needs to step it up when he encounters Marquez for the 4th and hopefully final time.

Anything short of a convincing win, some believe, would do irreparable damage to the career of the Filipino icon. And no matter how you spin it Manny’s fight with Bradley is in the record books as a loss. A 2nd straight loss for Pacquiao and it conceivable that the wheels would come off the tracks as far as any big pay days in the future. Even a close win will not get it done for “Pacman”. Marquez already insists that he won the first three fights.

It is difficult to imagine even Top Rank CEO Bob Arum having the ability to sell a big money fight to boxing fans in the event Manny comes up short of a decisive win against Marquez. As far as the super fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr, Floyd would then have a legitimate excuse to continue avoiding Manny.

Unsurprisingly the word coming out of the hype machines for both Pacquiao and Marquez is that both fighters look superb. Predictably both camps are reporting that their fighters are on target to achieve something special when they square off on fight night.
But that is pretty much what you would expect the camps of both fighters to say.

Marquez is saying that he will show an aggression that has not been seen in his previous fights with Manny. It has also been reported that Pacquiao too will try something new this time around against Marquez. It is more likely however that come fight night we will see the same Pacquiao and the same Marquez we have seen for years. The great heavyweight champion Joe Louis was once quoted as saying that “Everybody has a plan until he gets hit.” Once a fighter gets stung by an opponents punch he reverts back to his old habits.