Pacquiao: I’m going to attack Marquez and pressure him constantly

12/05/201212/04/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) is going to attempt to use an old strategy from his youth this Saturday night in trying to beat the 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) in their pay per view bout on HBO at the MGM Grand, Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Pacquiao said to the sports.inquirer.net “I intend to attack him, pressure him.”

In his sparring sessions, Pacquiao has been overwhelming his less talented sparring partners in short four round sparring events. However, going all out in short sparring against over-matched sparring partners isn’t going to be the same as what Pacquiao will be dealing with on Saturday night against Marquez. He’s not a sparring partner, and this isn’t going to be a four round fight.

If Pacquiao goes all out in the first four rounds, he’s likely to gas out in the second half of the fight like he did against Tim Bradley last June and possibly lose.

“Old” and New Pacquiao: The Big “If” in Quadrilogy

09/15/201611/30/2012 ESB

By Reni M. Valenzuela – Boxing longs for the “old” Pacman. But is there a basis to the longing?

What is especially good about the “old” Pacman that was missed in his recent fights and which causes the fans to yearn and buzz over deflated balloons when Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez is an old rival who “whipped” the career of an iconic boxer in the span of eight years, far less than what he did to the subconscious make-up of the same boxer known as Manny Pacquiao?

Will the longing be gratified? Or, better yet ask: Will the new Pacman fight the right fight with the right mindset next week, much differently from the ways of the “old” strayed one? Will the focused Pacman today allow the streams to go free-flowing for him with electric force abiding naturally in its course to electrocute doubters and put a closure to the controversial, long-running and “stiff” rivalry he has with Dinamita?

Ariza: Pacquiao always looks good in training camp, but then falls apart against Marquez in the fights

09/15/201611/29/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza thinks Pacquiao is looking really good in his training camp for his fight against Juan Manuel Marquez next month on December 8th. However, Ariza doesn’t see that as having a real meaning because he’s seen how Pacquiao looks good in training and then struggles when he gets in the ring with Marquez.

Ariza said to the Boxing Channel “I think Manny always looks good in camp, but then it comes to fight night, he falls apart.”

Roach needs to change Pacquiao’s game around to make his fighting style a little less predictable because Marquez has said that he knows what Pacquiao is going to do in the ring. Pacquiao does the same things over and over again, and that is part of his problem in his fights against Marquez.

Ariza says that Pacquiao isn’t following the old strength and conditioning program that Ariza had for him in the past when Pacquiao was at his best. Pacquiao stopped following the program after his win over Miguel Cotto in 2009, and since then he’s stepped back and not had the full program.

Roach suspicious about Marquez’s muscle growth

09/15/201611/28/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith: Freddie Roach is suddenly suspicious about the muscle growth of Juan Manuel Marquez as he heads towards a fourth fight with Manny Pacquiao on December 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Roach suspects that Marquez may have built his impressive physique by other than natural means.

Roach told usatoday.comK/u> “If [Marquez’s body] is natural, I will kiss his a**. [Marquez] has gotten bigger and gained weight. It throws up a red flag.”

Roach has nothing to go on with this, and seems to be just reaching out of nowhere on this. Marquez has never failed any tests in the past for performance enhancing drugs, and he’s really not put a whole of muscle. He started at 135, and has merely put on less than 10 pounds in the past year. That’s hardly the sign of a fighter using performance enhancing drugs.

Marquez hired a strength and conditioning coach Angel Hernandez, who has done a good job of helping Marquez build up his physique with resistance exercises. Hernandez is quite good at his job, and he’s worked wonders with Marquez.

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Juan Manuel Márquez / Nacho Béristain Interview Transcript

09/15/201611/28/2012 ESB

TODD duBOEF: Welcome everybody. Welcome champion Juan Manuel Márquez, Fernando Beltran and Hall of Fame trainer Ignacio “Nacho” Béristain. Juan Manuel’s media day was in México last week and the reports say that Juan Manuel has never looked this good. We all know what has happened over the years and how this is a legendary match-up and I think it’s really important for everyone to speak to Juan Manuel and Nacho about their strategy and before I do that I would like to introduce Fernando the co-promoter of Juan Manuel

FERNANDO BELTRAN: Welcome and I think what Todd says is absolutely true. This is a unique rivalry and the most important match of the year without a doubt. We are going to close the year on the right foot. Juan Manuel is world champion in four weight classes and has never looked this good. Everybody knows about the controversy in the last fight. It was good for Manny Pacquaio to take this fight to clear everything up and let’s see who the best man is on December 8.

Pacquiao vs. Marquez 4: Will the crowd turn against Manny if he gets another controversial win?

09/14/201611/23/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith: If remember watching the last fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez last year in November at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, you’ll note that the Vegas crowd, which had been heavily in Pacquiao’s favorite all fight long, suddenly turned against him when the judges’ results were announced after the fight giving him the ring.

The crowd was unhappy with the decision and felt that Marquez should have won. There was a lot of booing, and it made it hard to hear Pacquiao speak when he was being interviewed after the fight. The question is will the crowd erupt into even louder booing if Pacquiao wins another controversial decision when he meets up with Marquez on December 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas?

Pacquiao has had incredible luck to be able to go though the three fights with Marquez without a loss because many boxing fans believe that Pacquiao deserved to win none of the fight, including the first one. While there is considerable controversy where there isn’t controversy is in looking at who won the majority of the rounds in their three fights. In watching all three fights back to back it’s irrefutable that Marquez won the vast majority of the rounds, or at least he should have. He controlled the action, landed the cleaner shots, and had the superior ring generalship. But still Pacquiao was given two wins and a draw in those three fights.

Arum: There’s a possibility of a 5th Pacquiao-Marquez fight

09/15/201611/20/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith: When asked if we could be seeing a future fifth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum couldn’t rule it out, saying this during Tuesday’s telephone conference call: “There is a possibility. [Sugar Ray] Robinson and [Jake] Lamotta fought six time.”

Watching Pacquiao and Marquez fight for a fifth time is kind of scary because it seems like the fight has been played out too many times and is little more than just a money grab at this point. Both guys are showing signs of fading and it’s not nearly as interesting now to see them still fighting each other. It’s as if Arum has fought something that works and he doesn’t want to look to fight other bouts for his fighter Pacquiao.

Chris Byrd: “I don’t believe Manny Pacquiao or Juan Manuel Marquez will change very much in part four”

09/15/201610/31/2012 ESB

By Joseph Herron – With the fourth installment of Pacquiao/Marquez just six weeks away, both men have begun the sparring portion of their preparation for the big December 8th boxing showdown at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

While Pacquiao and Roach have boldly stated through various media sources that a knock-out will be imperative to win for a third time, former IBF Heavyweight Boxing Champion Chris “Rapid Fire” Byrd believes that a KO victory against the Mexican legend will be a task that is much easier said than done.

“Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez will always be a great fight,” insists the lifelong boxing proponent. “This is still maybe the toughest fight out there for Manny Pacquiao other than a match-up with Floyd Mayweather Jr.”

“One of the reasons why a fight with JMM will always be difficult for Manny is that Marquez is so smart, he cuts you in half. He uses his footwork in a way that strategically makes a southpaw reach over his body to try and hit him. This ultimately leaves Manny out of position and open for a Marquez counter.”

“JMM patiently picks his shots because he knows he doesn’t have the edge in hand speed. He sets up his shots extremely well and delivers with precision. Because Manny has more to lose in this fight than Marquez, due to his questionable loss to Bradley and his controversial win against JMM, you might see Manny Pacquiao fight with more of a sense of urgency which could lead to more careless mistakes that a smart fighter like Marquez could exploit.”

“Rapid Fire” makes an excellent observation. Manny Pacquiao indeed has more to lose going into the fourth contest with JMM.

Because of Pacquiao’s inability to put away his last five opponents, and due to the controversial nature of his last two outings, the Filipino boxing icon has seen his pound for pound ranking among many fight fans and boxing scribes slip considerably.

Where does Juan Manuel Marquez rank in the history of Mexican boxing?

09/14/201610/12/2012 ESB

By Emilio Camacho, Esq. Mexico has an impressive imprint in boxing history. The current most dominant Mexican boxer is Juan Manuel Marquez. Several of you have emailed me asking where does Marquez stand in history.

Experts will argue that Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and Salvador Sanchez rank above Marquez. This is not hard to justify. In addition, I believe that Ricardo “Finito” Lopez should be ranked above Marquez. Lopez was the most dominant force in Mexican boxing and retired undefeated. However, Chavez and Sanchez arguably had the better opposition.

What is important to think about is not how Marquez ranks in all-time Mexican boxing history but rather how he ranks in his own era. This is because there are two other fighters, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, who dominated that era for a long time, and actually overshadowed Marquez for many years while all three had active boxing careers. This is significant because it is rare to have great talent at the same time, though it has certainly happened before (Ali, Frazier, Foreman as well as Leonard, Duran, and Hagler are some examples).

Pacquiao starts training camp on October 15th; Marquez already training in Mexico

09/14/201610/05/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao will be starting his training camp on October 15th with trainer Freddie Roach at the Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles, California. Pacquiao and Roach plan on trying to take Pacquiao back to where he was in his earlier days when he was a seek and destroy fighter. For whatever reason Pacquiao has evolved into a slow plodder that moves with great effort, can’t cut off a ring very well, and who only fights hard for the last 30 to 40 seconds of every round. Pacquiao thinks he can get back to the form of his early youth by working out harder.

Pacquiao is currently being put through his paces by one of his team members Buboy Fernandez, but this isn’t the official start of his training camp.

As for Marquez, he’s already busy working out in the mountains of Mexico and is reportedly training at the 15,354 foot Nevado de Toluca, in the mounts of Mexico to work on his conditioning. According to the Manila Bulletin, Marquez plans on working at high altitude for 10 days to build up his endurance for the Pacquiao fight.