As much as fight fans are interested in seeing how much the great Manny Pacquiao has left, whether or not he can defeat Lucas Matthysse to kick-start his career with a win that would gain the southpaw dynamo yet another belt, people are also wondering what might be next for Pac Man if he does indeed do the business on Saturday.
There are a few fight ideas/possibilities floating around for the 39 year old all-time great. That big fight with reigning pound-for-pound king Vasyl Lomachenko refuses to go away, while a return battle with Matthysse would not be out of the question if this weekend’s fight proves to be thrillingly memorable. But another big fight that some have spoken of exists, maybe, for Pacquiao: a fifth fight with arch-rival Juan Manuel Marquez.
Matthysse promoter Oscar De La Hoya told the gathered media in Malaysia that he himself would very much like to see Pacquiao and Marquez get it on again and The Golden Boy said that fight fans the world over share the same desire.
“It would be a great. [A] Fight for the ages,” De La Hoya told reporters when speaking about the possibility of a Marquez-Pacquiao V, as quoted by Inquirer.net. “If they fight again we know it’s gonna be another war. People wanna see it, I would love to see it.”
So how about it, is Oscar correct; do YOU want to see the two greats tangle again, for the first time since December of 2012? We all sure know De La Hoya is bang-on correct when he says we would see another great fight. Fight-one was a superb duel, as close as can possibly be in a draw, while fights two and three were also excellent, nip-and-tuck affairs that brought out the very best in both warriors. And of course we know what happened in the sixth-round of fight-four.
Marquez has been quoted a number of times as saying he does not want to spoil the magical feeling of that KO win with another fight, that with another fight comes the possibility of another loss to Pac Man. Not even for $100 million, Marquez once said in speaking of the lack of even a remote shot of he and Pacquiao rumbling again; “Dinamita’s” mind made up as firmly as can be imagined.
But fighters are, as we know, a strange breed, often prone to changing their minds over and over. Maybe Marquez will get bored in retirement and decide that yes he does want to fight the most intense and challenging rival of his entire career once more.
If the two do ever fight again – Pacquiao after Saturday, Marquez for the fist time since his May 2014 win over Mike Alvarado – at least if they fought each other they would be evenly matched. Pacquiao is too old to be going after the likes of Lomachenko, isn’t he? But a fifth war with Marquez, that would be big, exciting and ultra-competitive.
Who wouldn’t wanna see it?