Pac and Floyd’s latest PPV: Handwriting on the wall

05/16/201405/16/2014 Reni M. Valenzuela

The pay-per-view sales are down for the shows far below projections. HBO and Showtime live cable viewing for both fights didn’t do well in numbers based on the announced approximation by the producers or accurate/padded figures they are reluctant to divulge. Brats and crocs aren’t ecstatic about the grim facts that have come in.

Had the people been remiss in doing their part and had majority of the fans, as a form of protest, failed to keep their distance from the recently concluded “Mayweather-Maidana” and “Pacquiao-Bradley II,” PPV result for the said events could have ballooned to more than double.

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Marquez targeting Pacquiao for fifth fight

05/14/201405/13/2014 Rob Smith

40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) has his eyes on a fifth fight against Manny Pacquiao if he can get past Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) in their HBO televised fight this Saturday night at the Forum, in Inglewood, California, USA. Marquez wants the Pacquiao fight because he’s the WBO welterweight title holder, and Marquez wants the opportunity to win a fifth division world title.

For him winning fifth world title will somehow validate his long 21-year pro career. You can’t help thinking that even if Marquez beats Pacquiao to capture his WBO title, Marquez will continue on and have some other goal that will keep him fighting. Hopefully, Marquez doesn’t get it into his head to try and capture a junior middleweight title, because that would be really pushing it.

“We all want the fifth title. It’s very important to all of us,” Marquez said. “That’s the motivation now to keep going. The first thing is Alvarado, but we know that the fifth fight with Pacquiao is a possibility.”

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Floyd Sr. still convinced Mayweather would dominate Pacquiao

08/01/201405/12/2014 Bill Phanco

In his recent win over Marcos Maidana on May 3rd, Floyd Mayweather Jr. looked about as bad as he’s looked since his two life and death struggles against Jose Luis Castillo in 2002. Mayweather, for the first time in his career, looked his age, and didn’t seem to be the same guy that had dominated Robert Guerrero and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez recently.

That’s why it came across as kind of strange that Floyd Mayweather Sr. is still talking about how easily Floyd Jr. would beat Manny Pacquiao if that fight were to happen. It’s pretty much clear that Mayweather will never agree to fight the Filipino star for whatever reason. But it’s strange to see Floyd Sr. talking boldly about how Mayweather would dominate Pacquiao when he couldn’t even beat Maidana convincingly.

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Muhammad Ali wants Mayweather to fight Pacquiao

05/04/2014 Reni M. Valenzuela

Much of boxing made a mistake underestimating the capability of the underdog champion to beat a pound-for-pound god. Floyd Mayweather Jr. must have realized he committed an equally big mistake handpicking the Argentine assault guru, Marcos Maidana.

Heavy favorite Mayweather lost yesterday many times over and in ways more than one even though the bias opinions didn’t reflect the judgment and cards didn’t read the way it should. However, Floyd’s poor performance in the fight didn’t cause him less a superb boxer in my estimation because I never was ever blinded by the facade and shows in the past like the jerks. I remain a fan and admirer of Floyd’s wizardry in the ring. Maidana was not underrated. It was Mayweather who was overrated by the normally jerk “experts.” And for them, it was well worth it as they all cry a bucket now and ask “bakit” (why).

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Manny Pacquiao: good enough to compete, but should now retire

04/17/2014 Anthony Jeffrey

After watching his performance last Saturday night, Manny Pacquiao should probably retire.
Make no mistake, Timothy Bradley officially and rightly lost by unanimous decision. But the real loser that night, however, was Juan Manuel Marquez.

His emphatic 2012 victory over Pacquiao was dampened by a subsequent loss to Bradley. And now Pacquiao’s convincing win over Bradley has put the final nail in the coffin for him. Why couldn’t he just retire after knocking Pacquiao out? From being on top of the world, he now sees himself sliding down the ladder of relevance.

Now, in the aftermath of his latest victory, Manny Pacquiao now finds himself at a similar crossroad. No doubt, he gave a career-resurrecting performance, with a legitimate, credible win over a previously undefeated Tim Bradley. The question the people are now asking is; who next? Floyd? Marquez V?

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The Pound-for-Pound Top 10

04/17/201404/16/2014 Jazz Singh Gill

The recent Manny Pacquaio vs Tim Bradley rematch was another rare chance for boxing fans to see two certified members of the fabled pound-for-pound top 10 compete.

The result of the fight did much to change the mythical rankings that only exists in people’s heads. And despite only being opinion, the pound-for-pound rankings are given more credence than any title, making these opinions as valuable as anything in sport today.

Of course, fighters can only earn the right to seriously be considered members of this elite club that so many never reach. Only through consistency, quality and bravery will a fighter ever be considered a pound-for-pound top 10 fighter. For this reason, the following list may have a few omissions that will raise a few eyebrows.

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Mayweather Jr. to fight Pacquiao on May 7th, 2016?

04/16/2014 Enlightened-One

I recently read an article that quoted Manny Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, claiming that if the eagerly-awaited Mayweather-Pacquiao super-fight does happen, it could be as a career finale for both men.

During the Pacquiao-Bradley II post-fight interview with Larry Merchant of HBO Boxing, Manny stated that he thought he had two years left as a professional boxer, which means his career would come to a close around May 2016.

Intriguingly, Mayweather has three more contests remaining on his contract with Showtime beyond the Maidana bout. Assuming that Floyd remains undefeated and fights every May & September each year, his final bout under the Showtime banner would be September 2015… and a victory on that date would equal Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 professional record.

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A retrospect of the 4th fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez – would five times be too much?

04/16/201404/16/2014 Ivan Ivanov

The 4th fight turned out to be a climatic episode of the famed rivalry and a defining moment for Juan Manuel Marquez. This was the third KO loss for Manny Pacquiao in his stellar career and normally it would mean the end of the road for a 34 years old welterweight . He has rebounded from the fiasco, rebuilt his bona fides and the dramatic turn of events has set up the stage for a 5th episode.

I’d like to focus on the knock down and KO punches thrown by Marquez in the 3rd and 6th round of the 4th fight as it was basically (but not exactly) the same shot. It appeared Marquez had adapted the punch specifically for his rival, a tailor made “Pacquiao special”. The move was designed individually for Manny Pacquiao taking into consideration his southpaw stance, fighting style, temper and usual reaction to attack. It could be argued that the KO was caused by a lucky strike, a fluke combined with lack of focus on Pacman’s part who believed (not without reason) that his opponent was finished. It has to be taken into consideration though that Marquez laboriously executed his game plan under severe stress while he was being outclassed and on the verge of being stopped by the congressman.

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Pacquiao is back as he beats Bradley

04/16/201404/15/2014 James Stillerman

Many boxing fans were calling for Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao to retire since he was 35 years old and coming off two losses in his last three bouts, yet he proved a great deal of them wrong as he demonstrated that he`s still one of the best fighters in the world in defeating, top ten pound for pound boxer, Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley, en route to a twelve round unanimous decision. His speed, power and aggressiveness was too much for Bradley, especially in the last six rounds of this matchup.

Thankfully, this time the judges correctly score the bout for Pacquiao, giving him two scorecards of 116-112 and one scorecard 118-110, as opposed to their first encounter, where the Pac Man destroyed Bradley, yet ended up on the wrong end of the one of the worst decisions boxing has seen in a long time.

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How would the great Ricky Hatton have fared against the great Manny Pacquiao had the two met in their respective primes? “Hitman” looks back

04/16/201404/15/2014 James Slater

It’s almost five years ago since Manny Pacquiao scored that brutally terrifying 2nd-round knockout over Ricky Hatton. Going into the fight in Las Vegas in May of 2009, many people were expecting Hatton to either: give Pac-Man a serious run for his money, or: actually defeat him with his advantages in size and physical strength. This line of thinking was completely blown out of the water after less than six-minutes of action, as Pacquiao scored a KO for the ages.

Still, all these years later, Hatton, now retired and secure in the knowledge that he gave his all in each and every fight of his career, thinks back to that night a half-decade ago. Could Hatton, had he prepared himself properly, with a hassle-free training camp, have beaten the southpaw dynamo? Would the peak Ricky Hatton, the fighting machine that upset the great Kostya Tszyu, have been too much for the man who turned pro as a 106-pounder all those years ago in The Philippines?

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