By Rob Smith: 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) and Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) have reportedly reached agreement to fight on November 10th, according to fightnews.com. It’s still not official but the word is that Marquez and Pacquiao have reached an agreement for a fourth fight between them, which will take place the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tim Bradley, the WBO welterweight champion, has been passed over for a rematch with Pacquiao, no doubt due to the poor pay per view figures that the Pacquiao-Bradley fight brought in last June.
Pacquiao has to beat Marquez in order to get a much bigger payday against unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr next year. It’s still unclear whether that fight can even be made unless the two fighters can agree on the purse split and other issues.
A fourth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez might be well received by some boxing fans who have enjoyed the two fighters three previous fights together. However, other boxing fans are plain sick of seeing these guys fight each other so often and they prefer to see them go their separate ways. The fights have always been controversial and that’s really taken away from them, as Marquez has fought well enough to deserve a decision in all three fights, and yet he’s got two losses and a draw to show for them. The controversy that surrounded Pacquiao’s last fight with Bradley has been multiplied three times in Pacquiao’s past fights with Marquez with a lot of fans feeling that Marquez was jobbed in each fight. All three fights took place in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Personally, I’d prefer Pacquiao fight someone else. This just looks like a money grab to me. Obviously, the fight is being made because there is still enough fan interest for it to possibly make a lot of money, but it’s so redundant given all the other fights between them. You just wonder when it will stop. It’s scary to imagine a future where promoter Bob Arum keeps matching them up time after time just because their fights together make money. Unless you’re a huge diehard Pacquiao and Marquez fan, it gets old for the rest of us. You want to see some more interesting fights made so that future stars can be made. Just having Pacquiao fight Marquez will help in the short term but what happens when both of these guys retire? Who will fill their place. Not getting other fighters a chance at Pacquiao stunts the sport in my view.
At this point Pacauiao and Marquez are both getting old. Pacquiao, whether you want to agree with it or not, looked old in his last fight against Bradley. It’s pretty obvious what he’s doing now in only fighting hard for the last 10 to 20 seconds of every round. That’s age.