By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum reportedly is saving September date for a rematch between his fighter Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez next year, according to RingTV. Arum wants to give Pacquiao as much time as possible for him to recover from his 6th round knockout from Marquez on December 8th, and by waiting until September it could give Pacquiao enough time to recover from the knockout, if possible.
There’s no real science on a knockout like this. Some people think that if a fighter waits a long time before fighting again after a KO then he’ll be okay, but there’s no telling what can happen. Some fighters still get knocked out even when they wait a long time in between fights, so it’s something that is different for each person.
If Pacquiao waits until September to fight Marquez then he’ll have had 9 months off to rest from the knockout. Whether that’s enough time is unclear, and we’ll have to find out when that time comes. Arum doesn’t think it’s necessary that Pacquiao fight a tune-up or two before putting Pacquiao back in with Marquez, and that’s something I don’t agree with.
I think Arum is taking a gamble by putting Pacquiao back in with Marquez without testing Pacquiao out against lesser fighters to see if he can still take a shot, because you’d like to know this before you put him back in with Marquez because we could see the same thing happen with Pacquiao getting knocked out again.
I don’t understand why Arum doesn’t want to test Pacquiao out against someone else before putting him back with Marquez. It would be nice to know whether Pacquiao can still take a shot. Of course, from the money standpoint I can understand why a tune-up bout wouldn’t be appealing for Pacquiao. He won’t make as much money as he would against Marquez, and if he gets found out that he can’t take a shot anymore, then there won’t be a big money rematch against Marquez.
I guess it’s better to throw Pacquiao out there with Marquez for a fifth fight, make the huge money that comes with that fight, and hope for the best. If Pacquiao loses, then at least he’ll have made big money for that one fight. If I was Pacquiao’s promoter I’d put him in with the tune-up because I wouldn’t want to see him potentially get really hurt with a big puncher like Marquez. I’d want to find out if he can’t handle big shots, because a weaker opponent won’t likely KO Pacquiao as bad as a stronger puncher like Marquez.
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