By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao may be starting to show signs of slipping in his last three fights but that’s not affecting his paydays in any way as we see with his bout on Saturday against Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao will be hauling in a guaranteed $25 million for the Marquez fight, according to Yahoo Sports News.
Manny Pacquiao
Manny Pacquiao boxing news
Marquez vs. Pacquiao IV: Just the Facts!!
By Robert Jackson: This edition of ‘just the facts’ will discuss the merits of the fight including conditioning, trainers, skills and the like, so stayed tuned. This writer feels that even though both fighters have said they will knock the other out, both fighters have made a silent agreement with each other over 3 previous fights. This agreement – similar to the agreement that sparring partners have with the fighter they’re sparring with to get ready for a fight, prevents that sparring partner from doing anything more than giving the main event guy rounds and good preparation. In a sense both fighters have a sparring partners mentality at this point in their rivalry. Enough of that let’s get on with the analysis.
Trainers
Freddie Roach is a multi-time trainer of the year and counts among his charges Martirosyan, Kayode and others, but Pacquiao is his top pupil. Roach has taken Pacquiao from a one-handed fighter, to a well rounded fighter.
Long time Marquez trainer Nacho Beristain at this point is just a gameplanner, Marquez knows how to fight, and he knows how to fight Pacquiao. The training will be the same as it always was and the gameplan will probably be the same. Adding some bulk and strength for the 147lb weight class, seems to be the only major change they’ve made.
Advantage Trainers – Even
Pacquiao wants Marquez to go toe-to-toe with him on Saturday night
By Brad Cronick: Frustrated with his inability to crack Juan Manuel Marquez’s tough counter punching style, Manny Pacquiao is using a little psychology on Marquez by urging him to stand and trade with him on Saturday night if he wants to prove that deserves to be the better man.
Pacquiao: I’m going to attack Marquez and pressure him constantly
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
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
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
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.
Broner wants Pacquiao fight: Can this bout me made?
By Rob Smith: WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner let HBO analyst Max Kellerman know last Saturday night that the fight that he wants next is against Manny Pacquiao in early 2013, saying “There’s a fight that can happen – me and [Manny] Pacquiao.” The interview took place before the Andre Berto vs. Robert Guerrero fight, which Broner attended in order to see his friend Berto fight.
A fight between Broner and Pacquiao would appear to be one that likely will never get made due to the two fighters not being from the same promotional stable. Normally this probably wouldn’t matter, but in this case it does because Pacquiao fights for Top Rank and Broner for Golden Boy Promotions. But perhaps the biggest reason why a fight between Broner and Pacquiao can’t get made right now is because Pacquiao is a proven pay per view star, whereas Broner has yet to establish himself as a PPV fighter.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum would be doing Broner and Golden Boy Promotions a huge favor by agreeing to match Pacquiao up with Broner at this early stage of Broner’s career. It would be an interesting fight because of Broner’s resemblance to Floyd Mayweather Jr. when fighting, and the fight would definitely do well in terms of money.
A win for Guerrero over Berto makes him an appealing option for Mayweather or Pacquiao
That’s easier said than done, because Berto is a 2-1 favorite to win this fight, and Guerrero didn’t show the kind of power or speed in his last fight against Selcuk Aydin that would enable him to beat Berto.
Berto is beatable, and saw how he’s vulnerable against an opponent that puts a lot of pressure on him and throws a ton punches in Berto’s loss to Victor Ortiz last year. However, Guerrero will have to stand directly in front of Berto to accomplish that task he’s going to have to take a lot of hard shots in the process. Ortiz was able to get his way because he had power and speed pretty equal to Berto’s.
Guerrero doesn’t have that kind of speed and power going for him. Guerrero is more like a pumped up lightweight that left his power hind him at 135. Even at that weight, Guerrero wasn’t a big puncher, and he mainly got his victories by throwing a lot of shots. He’s going to have to do that with Berto on Saturday, and hope that the judges are more impressed with his higher punch volume compared to the harder, faster and more flashier shots that Berto is answering him back with.
Pacquiao vs. Marquez 4: Will the crowd turn against Manny if he gets another controversial win?
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.