By Chris Williams: Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) says he has zero interested in fighting Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO’s) for a 5th time, as what Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is hoping for. Instead of Marquez fighting Pacquiao, he wants him to face Floyd Mayweather Jr. in order to give boxing fans the fight that they really want to see. Marquez feels that he’s had enough fights against Pacquiao, and he doesn’t want to waste time fighting him a fifth time.
Marquez is fighting Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) next month on May 17th in a WBO welterweight title eliminator bout at the Forum, in Inglewood, California, USA. The winner of that fight is supposed to fight for the WBO title against Pacquiao now that he’s beaten Tim Bradley.
“I think that the fans want Manny vs. Floyd, and they want to see and should do it,” Marquez said to Univision. “I already have four fights against Pacquiao, and many people prefer to see these two rivals in the ring.”
Unfortunately the chances of a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight are rather slim at this time due to the Top Rank vs. Golden Boy Promotions squabbles going on, as well as the network issues between the two cable giants. Pacquiao fights are televised on HBO, while Mayweather fights on Showtime. In other words, no Pacquiao-Mayweather fight.
If Marquez beats Alvarado, he should look to fight someone else rather than facing Pacquiao for a 5th time. It’s already time that that long rivalry ended, because Marquez has already proven that he’s the better fighter by getting the better of Pacquiao in their four fights. Marquez arguably won all four of the fights regardless of how the judges scored the first three fights. Marquez has nothing to prove by fighting Pacquiao again, because he’s already proven that he’s better than him four times.
Marquez recently chose not to fight WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov for his title, because he had already held that title. Marquez didn’t want to take his career backwards by fighting for the same title that he had recently given up. It would be the same thing with Marquez if he were to fight Pacquiao. He already beat him four times, and there’s no point in him beating him a 5th time.
It would be like going back to the 6th grade five times to see how much better you can do against the younger students. Marquez is already conquered Pacquiao and graduated from that test. If Marquez is going to continue his career then he needs to fight the best – Mayweather or Marcos Maidana.
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