By Miguel Alejandro Lopez: It has been said that “success does certain things to people”, and that is true of Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1), who has recently won a convincing victory over Manny Pacquiao (55-5-1) last December 2012. The prized Mexican fighter, over the past few months, has been cited addressing the media and reporters with a different attitude — that of an inflated ego and acting pretty much like a primadonna big shot.
During the initial negotiations for a possible fifth showdown between Marquez and Pacquiao, the legendary Mexican reportedly asked for a purse of $20 million dollars to consider making the fight happen. That amount is pretty much outrageous, as Marquez has never really made more than $6 million dollars in any fight in his career, and his pay-per-view numbers are without a doubt, smaller than that of his Filipino nemesis.
Nevertheless, Bob Arum still offered $14 million for Marquez to take the fight, to which El Dinamita felt insulted and declined. It would be remembered that the greatest Mexican boxer that ever lived, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., only earned a career high payday of $9 Million. Marquez, by pricing himself way above Chavez Sr., only shows how the recent success he accomplished went over his head.
Another recent observation about Marquez’s attitude was made by his own trainer, Nacho Beristain. According to Beristain, his prized ward never bothered to visit his gym for a few months right after the win against Pacquiao. In the past 50+ fights that Marquez has had, Nacho said that the boxer never failed to visit the gym within a week after any fight. But after the Pacquiao win, Marquez never visited his trainer and is nowhere to be found anywhere near the gym.
The most recent display of Marquez’s attitude is when he prematurely announced that his fight with Timothy Bradley is already agreed upon. Juan Manuel Marquez apparently thinks that he can pressure Bradley to take the fight simply because he calls the shots. Bradley’s camp responded that they know nothing of the so-called fight “agreement” and no deal on a fight has been finalized. It is a bit of a shame because Marquez is such a talented boxer, but the attitude he has been displaying recently only causes a lot of fans to get turned off and will probably decrease his PPV stock even more. His lack of respect for Bradley, Arum, and to his nemesis Pacquiao only makes it more likely that El Dinamita has taken a serious ego blow to the head.
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