Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez provided fans with one of the most thrilling bouts of the year last November. While it was the Filipino champion who ultimately emerged victorious from that showdown, many felt as though Marquez had done enough to earn the win.
In fact, shortly after the judges announced who had won, fans in attendance booed the result and threw stuff at the ring.
Almost immediately after the fight, Top Rank boss Bob Arum made it clear that fighting Marquez again was a priority. Similarly, Pacquiao expressed a certain desire to give arguably his biggest career rival (as in, biggest rival amongst guys he’s fought) a fourth shot at beating him.
Since then, though, the prospect of Pacquiao and Marquez meeting against has been sort of shut down. Between Pacquiao’s “negotiations” with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and eventual agreement to fight Timothy Bradley this June, nobody has really bothered to bring up what the odds of Marquez getting another crack at Pacquiao currently are. That’s not to say Marquez hasn’t been vocal about his desire to fight the Filipino champ – it’s more of a case of Pacquiao simply having bigger and more important things to do.
Or so we thought.
As it turns out, Pacquiao had a reason for not instantly giving Marquez a fourth fight this year. He opened up about that reason during an interview with Boxing Scene. Per the report:
“There’s a chance to fight [Marquez] again, but not right now,” Pacquiao said. “I don’t think people will watch the same movie [over and over].
“For me, as a boxer, if I don’t care what the fans say, their satisfaction … it’s good to fight Marquez because you don’t get hurt, you know, it’s just many movements, not as much toe-to-toe, exchanging punches. But my concern is the fans. I don’t want to lose the trust of the people in boxing. I don’t want to lose the fans in boxing. That’s my first concern, especially at this time. There’s a lot of sports, everything, and there’s [competition].”
He’s right. As much of an initial stir as there was shortly after their November showdown, once folks cooled down – everyone realized that seeing these guys fight again may not be the best idea. Yes, Marquez will always give Pacquiao trouble and will always be a legitimate foe for the Filipino champion, but how many shots at victory do you need to give someone before it becomes stupid?
Fans, for the most part, realized that as 2011 wrapped up.
There is still time for Pacquiao and Marquez to meet again if a more formidable opponent can’t be found for Pacquiao, but you really can’t argue with the champ’s logic for not being overeager to make this bout happen.
(Kudos to B/R for the find)
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Yea nobody wants to see this fight again. Shouldn't someone have to actually win a fight before earning the right to three rematches?