Manny Pacquiao

By Rob Smith: 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez still doesn’t know if he’ll return to the ring in 2013, as he’s considering whether to continue to fight or not, according to notifight.com. He’s still talking with his family about whether he should come back and perhaps fight one or two more times before hanging up the gloves permanently.

It’s going to be difficult for Marquez to retire right now with the lure of a fifth fight with Manny Pacquiao at the Cowboys Stadium this year. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum hasn’t yet talked to Marquez about his future plans, but you can guess that he’ll make a huge offer to get Marquez to continue fighting so that he can set up a Pacquiao vs. Marquez fifth fight this year.

It might actually be better Pacquiao’s sake if he doesn’t try and get Marquez to continue fighting because Pacquiao really doesn’t need another knockout loss like the one he suffered on December 8th of last month when Marquez knocked Pacquiao completely out in the 6th round. That was a knockout that could have some lasting negative effects for Pacquiao for the remainder of his career.

Arum could be making a mistake of having Pacquiao fight Marquez again, because even if it makes a ton of money for Pacquiao, Arum and Marquez, it could be the last big payday for Pacquiao if he gets knocked cold again. You would have to figure that Pacquiao would have a lot of pressure on him to retire after getting knocked out a second time.

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By Marcus Richardson: Whether Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez end up fighting for a fifth time may rest on whether both of their wives will allow them to continue fighting. It’s no secret that Marquez and Pacquiao’s wives both want them to retire.

Pacquiao’s wife was stunned at seeing Pacquiao knocked cold by Marquez in the 6th round in their fourth fight on December 8th, and she’s worried that Pacquiao could badly hurt in a 5th fight. She wants Pacquiao to retire straightaway, although she’s leaving the final decision with him.

Marquez’s wife had an agreement from Marquez that he’d retire after the fourth fight with Pacquiao, but now Marquez is hoping to talk his wife into allowing him to fight one more time before retiring in a final fight with Pacquiao. So far, Marquez’s wife is reportedly still adamant about wanting him to hang up his gloves. He’s going to try and convince her in the coming weeks/months to allow him to fight Pacquiao for a 5th fight.

The problem with the two fighters is that they’ll want to keep fighting unless something or someone makes them talk. The competitive drive between these guys is too strong for them to retire when the interest in still there with the boxing public.

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By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao has no interest in sitting around and waiting until September 2013 before he fights again. Pacquiao reportedly is interested in getting back in action in April despite his 6th round knockout loss to his old nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez on December 8th of this month.

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By Bill Phanco: Floyd Mayweather Sr. is advising that Manny Pacquiao stay far, far away from a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez next year. Mayweather Sr. is concerned that Pacquiao’s ability to take head shots may have been diminished with his 6th round knockout loss to Marquez recently, and thinks Pacquiao get knocked out once again if he makes the mistake of fighting Marquez for a 5th time.

Mayweather Jr. told Doghouseboxing.com “When you get knocked out like that, pretty much everything is over…Pacquiao is not going to be the same fighter he was…If he fights Marquez again the same thing could happen.”

It definitely could happen.

Pacquiao doesn’t think it will, but then again this is the common response for fighters that have been knocked out like he was. They often think they can go back in the ring and fight like they did before the knockout, but many of them quickly find out that they can’t take heavy shots like before without getting knocked out.

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By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza wants to get Pacquiao back on their strength training regimen so that he can increase Pacquiao’s strength and get him winning a again. Ariza thinks that Pacquiao has made a mistake by not following his old strength training with Ariza.

Pacquiao lost his last fight to Juan Manuel Marquez, who did a great job of increasing his own strength with his strength coach Angel Heredia.

Ariza has a lot of respect for what Heredia was able to do with Marquez with building up his muscle strength while keeping Marquez’s weight the exact same as it was. Heredis built up Marquez’s body and was able to replace the fat on his frame with muscle, which made him a much different fighter than he’d been in the three prior fights with Pacquiao.

Ariza said to Doghouseboxing.com “In a perfect world, I would want Manny to adopt the strength and conditioning program all over again from day one. Then I’d like him to have a tune-up fight to get familiar with that feeling again. After that then Marquez again and let me do my thing to help.”

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By Rob Smith: It’s being reported that the Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) vs. Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) 5th fight for 2013 may be headed to the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas rather than Las Vegas, Nevada, where it’s taken place in four of the previous bouts between the two fighters.

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By Rob Smith: For those fans who were hoping that Juan Manuel Marquez would test positive for performance enhancing drugs so that it would help deflate the impact of his impressive knockout performance against Manny Pacquiao, they got bad news today with the Nevada State Athletic Commission revealing that Marquez – and Pacquiao’s – tests came up negative for PEDs. The only thing you can say now is that Marquez beat Pacquiao fair and square on his talent alone. He did get help with his training with his excellent trainer Nacho Beristain and other team members such as strength and conditioning coach Angel Heredia, but there’s nothing illegal with what Marquez did.

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