By Joseph Herron – On the eve of the monumental fourth meeting between two future Hall of Fame fighters, Manny Pacquaio and Juan Manuel Marquez, HBO’s unofficial ringside scorer Harold Lederman chimed in on what fight fans should expect to see when these ring legends collide at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“One variable that’s worth noting when you look at the fourth installment of the Pacquiao/Marquez saga is that two of the three ringside judges will be from outside of Nevada,” observes Harold Lederman. “I screamed and yelled that Juan Manuel Marquez is entitled to have all three judges flown in from other locations, but they’re using Adalaide Byrd as the lone Nevada state judge.”
“But one of the judges will be from Great Britain, and the other will be flown in from New Jersey, so we’ll see what happens. But at least we don’t have three Nevada state judges this time for a fight of this magnitude. Maybe they’ll see it differently, because my gut tells me that it’s going twelve rounds once again.”
By Joseph Herron: It’s been just a little over two months since “King” Gabriel Rosado (21-5, 13 KOs) earned the opportunity to fight for championship gold by defeating Charles Whitaker in an IBF Junior Middleweight title eliminator on NBC Sports Network.
By Marc Livitz: Rest assured and let there be no confusion in regards to the highly anticipated yet not totally appreciated mega fight which is set to take place this Saturday evening at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. There will be a Pacquiao versus Marquez V. And VI, VII, VIII and so on. While this idea is likely to be nothing more than figurative, the bickering amongst the dedicated faithful of the respective sides are likely to verbally squabble for many years to come. Manny Pacquiao believes he won and Juan Manuel Marquez knows that he won.
By Rob Smith: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is now reportedly interested in facing WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout on May 4th, if a bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr. can’t get made. The Mayweather fight is the one that Canelo really wants most of all, and he said to the record.com.mx that his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are attempting to put the Mayweather fight together for him. But if all else fails, Canelo said he’d be looking towards a fight with Trout.
By Eric Roman Sr. – A lot of talk has been made about the possible showdown between Canelo Alvarez and Miguel Cotto, even though the wily veteran lost a unanimous decision to Austin Trout this past weekend. As we all know, Cotto has had an incredible career, a sure fire Hall of Famer, and one of the greatest Puerto Rican fighters of all time, but at this point, much like “Sugar” Shane Mosely back in May, do we really need to see an all time great get battered by this young ferocious lion? Before the Trout fight, I was all for it, I thought it was a no-brainer. Two similar styles, both being boxer-punchers, the “old” versus the “new”, Puerto Rico vs. Mexico, can it get any better? Well, the problem with all that is the fact that Austin Trout made it all go away. He showed us that Miguel Cotto may be a little more past his prime then we thought, let’s face it, he left it all in the ring against Floyd Mayweather back in May, and those type of fights, along with both Margarito brawls, the Pacquiao bout, and a number of others when he was at 140lbs. have taken a lot out of him.