MANILA, Philippines — Despite facing countless battles against top boxers of his weight class, Mexican brawler Juan Manuel Marquez still seems to be a distant item on the radar of Top Rank big boss Bob Arum.
This after Arum’s latest proposal for Marquez to fight undefeated World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight king Andre Berto first and prove that he can handle the challenge of much bigger fighters before he can land his long-time dream of a third fight with pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao.
“Put Marquez in with Berto, let’s see what he does. If he beats Berto, well, obviously, he can fight a Pacquiao,” Arum said, as quoted by Mark Vester on Boxing Scene. “But I don’t think he can fight at the higher weights.
The only time Marquez jumped to the higher weight classes where Pacquiao has been campaigning as of late was when he faced the undefeated Floyd Mayweather, Jr. in September 2009 —a bout he lost via unanimous decision.
“It doesn’t say anything about his ability as a fighter. He’s a good fighter, nice fellow,” Arum continued.
Berto, meanwhile, expressed readiness to face Marquez, who is arguably one of the toughest boxers the world has ever witnessed in the recent era.
“I’m willing to fight guys like Miguel Cotto, like Marquez, maybe one of the top guys coming from 140,” Berto was quoted by boxingtalk.com as saying. “Right now, I’ll fight anybody. If Superman continues to bark and run off his mouth and HBO is willing to put up the money to make it happen, I’ll be all for it,” added Berto, who is coming off a first round technical knockout win over Freddy Hernandez on the undercard of Marquez’s fight against Michael Katsidis last month.
Marquez and Berto were both consistently named as the next possible opponents for Pacquiao, who punctuated 2010 with a brutal beating of the much bigger and much heavier Antonio Margarito last November, thus earning for himself his eighth world title in as many divisions.
And, after a series of talking and dealing, Pacquiao’s camp settled for a May 7, 2011 slugfest with the 39-year-old Shane Mosley, which, as has been reported lately, has been receiving negative comments from boxing experts and fans alike.
“It (Pacquiao-Mosley) might be interesting, but this is not what the public wants to see,” said trainer Jose Bonilla, who works with Carlos Quintana, in an interview cited by Jhonny Gonzalez. “I do not believe that Mosley should have received the break to face Pacquiao. Perhaps a few years ago yes, because Mosley has a strong chin. But in his last few fights there were problems with his stamina.”
Mosley is coming off a loss (by unanimous decision) to Mayweather last May, where he visibly ran out of steam midway into the bout after appearing to hurt the latter in the third round.
“The only opponent who can beat Pacquiao right now is Mayweather,” Bonilla concluded.
Evangelista Cotto, who used to train his nephew and one of Pacquiao’s victims Miguel Cotto, also shares the same sentiment as Bonilla.
“Pacquiao is in his prime and Mosley is already a boxer on the decline. It is not an attractive fight for boxing.
Pacquiao broke down the defenses put up against him by bigger and heavier opponents like Ricky Hatton, Cotto, Joshua Clottey, and Margarito, and overwhelmed each of them through sheer power and volume punching. Those same qualities might also be the key to Pacquiao putting down Mosley come fight night.
“Pacquiao is going to win comfortably, he looks too strong. Look at how he dominates 154-pound fighters,” Cotto said.
Ericson Beco, Manila Bulletin
