By Miguel Alejandro Lopez: Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s), an extremely talented athlete from Mexico, is set to face American WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (30-0, 12 KO’s) on October 12th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. For boxing purists, the fight is expected to be an interesting one.
For the casual boxing fan, however, the fight is a potential dud. Marquez does not have a very strong global following, and Bradley is coming off two controversial wins. Their styles are somewhat technical, similar to chess match, and there is a feeling that there will be little action during this fight.
Marquez, being a former accountant and a truly brainy person, knows that the Bradley fight is destined to fail PPV wise. Each time Marquez becomes desperate, he throws a wild yet “calculated” guess. So in an effort to save his upcoming fight from being totally annihilated from the PPV records, he makes a very wise move. That move, in my opinion, is to make the media believe that he is actually open to a fifth fight with his nemesis Manny Pacquiao (the boxer who slept for 2 minutes in the ring), should the fight occur in Mexico.
I believe that Marquez has truly no intention of fighting Pacquiao again. He just wants the media and the people believe that he is open to fighting Pacquiao again to generate interest for his upcoming fight with Bradley. It’s not like Marquez will risk another controversial loss to Pacquiao, who just might end up winning another decision win — this time it was without controversy. Pacquiao is a dangerous opponent, and JMM wants to keep the feeling of the KO forever. That means, the Mexican will likely never be attracted to a rematch, regardless of how much money is made.
I have a bad feeling though, that Marquez will lose to Bradley, and then Marquez will really try to make another Pacquiao fight to get back on the radar. Pacquiao was KOed real bad, but he is nowhere near old age as Marquez is. What’s bad is that Marquez is biting at anything to promote his fights, even taking back his words (I won’t fight Pacquiao again). In fact, in a press conference for his fight versus Bradley, he just kept talking about Pacquiao and how a fight in Mexico will be a good one. That’s bad for his image, since he actually wanted people to believe that he has moved on from Pacman, thus he should just stick to that and not try any other lazy strategy.
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