By Chris Williams: It looks like Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has his mind made up about wanting to stage the 5th fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez in Mexico in September. Arum definitely wants the fight to be staged there to save money on taxes.
Arum said to the Manilastandardtoday.com “We’re saving Mexico for September.
If Arum was thinking clearly he’d forget all about staging the Pacquiao-Marquez 5 fight in Mexico and instead look to have it take place in Asia where Pacquiao will have the majority of the fans supporting him.
There’s no doubt about it that Arum, Pacquiao and Marquez will save a lot of money by not having the fight take place in Mexico. However, Arum is going to make it really tough on Manny by letting Marquez fight in front of a large Mexican crowd which could be as many as 18,000 fans.
It’s doubtful that Pacquiao’s loyal fans will be able to make such a long journey to Mexico to see him fight. I’m sure there will some Pacquiao’s audience but it’s going to be overwhelmingly Marquez fans. This isn’t new for Pacquiao considering Marquez has had more fans in the audience in his last two fights in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2011 and 2012, but this is going to be much more so than in those fights.
Marquez fights well when he’s got a loud supportive crowd behind him and this could be enough for Marquez to beat Pacquiao. I don’t think that’s going to be the main reason for Marquez beating him again, but I do think it’s going to help Marquez in a significant way.
Ultimately, I believe the fight will be won on Marquez’s superior power being too much for Pacquiao to take again. Pacquiao will fight as he always does and will walk into a big shot, but instead of being able to handle Marquez’s power like he did in their first three fights in 2004, 2008 and 2011, I see Pacquiao getting knocked out again. It may or may not be as bad it was last December, but I think Marquez will KO Pacquiao just the same.
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