By James Slater: Mexican legend Juan Manuel Marquez is still toying with the idea of retiring from boxing, as bitter as he still is about his “robbery” of a loss to archrival Manny Pacquiao. The exceptional 38-year-old told Proceso that he will make up his mind about whether or not he will hang ‘em up in “within twenty days.”
Marquez also told the Mexican news outlet that if he were to fight Pac-Man a fourth time, he would, A: want at least $10 million, and B: the fight would positively have to be staged in Mexico; at Estadio Ezteca in Mexico City preferably.
Marquez feels he has more than earned the right to call the shots (and many fans will no doubt agree with him – after all, “Dinamita” has proven his star power, with Saturday’s fight shattering all previous T.V numbers in Mexico; with a reported 37.2 million Mexican fans tuning in on Azteca 7 channel), and he listed some other conditions regarding a fourth engagement with the Filipino superstar.
“Now I am the one who will put forth the conditions,” Marquez stated boldly. “I want to see if it is true that Manny Pacquiao fights for the people. First he has to accept that he lost, the WBO must not accept the decision they gave him, and give him a no-contest.”
To a fan, people everywhere will know there is absolutely no chance either of the above two demands from Marquez will be met. Pacquiao accept his win being turned into a no-contest? No way! And there is no chance that anyone from Team-Pacquiao will ever admit the superstar lost last Saturday either – not while Pac-Man is still active anyway.
Will Marquez play serious hardball and actually retire if his demands are not met? I can see Marquez getting his way as far as the money he has asked for for a fourth encounter (the Pay-Per-View revenue would be quite literally through the roof if the two greats fought again), and maybe – maybe – Pacquiao will agree to fight Marquez in Mexico. But as for the WBO changing Saturday’s result and Pac-Man going along with it: forget it!
For now, though, Marquez is enjoying acting like the big shot. In light of Saturday’s poor decision he is more than entitled to be doing so.