Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez IV: Limiting Distractions

Manny Pacquiao has acknowledged on numerous occasions that he wasn’t at the top of his game last November when he last fought Juan Manuel Marquez. For an assortment of reasons, both professional and personal, he came into the proceedings lacking the focus and concentration necessary to beat an opponent of Marquez’s caliber.

He vows to do better this time.

Thanks to a somewhat shocking and extremely unfair loss to Timothy Bradley this past June, Pacquiao’s back is against the wall. Folks could forgive a defeat to Bradley that wasn’t really even a defeat. If Marquez gets the better of him, however, there will be no excuses left for the Filipino champ.

During a recent interview with PhilBoxing, Freddie Roach expounded on why Marquez gave Pacquiao so much trouble on the last go-round.

"We had a great camp last fight (against Marquez) and everything fell apart before the fight, distractions of course. Manny got rid of all that stuff in his life. It's not going to happen this time," Roach said.

And how is the actual training process going to be different this time? Roach covered that, too.

"We'll have a great camp and Manny's attitude is great. I see no problems. I have to come up with a different type of strategy for Marquez. We decked him three times though, we had some success but not as much as I want. He told me that he will knock him out this time and I am going to hold him to do it," he said.

So all involved understand what the stakes are right now? According to Roach – yes.

"Manny understands that he needed that killer instinct back and that firepower. And that people want to see knockouts and not decisions. So, Manny knows that and he promised me a knockout for the first time ever and I'm going to remind him that every day."

December 8 is going to be very interesting.

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Manny Pacquiao and his camp are well aware of what’s on the line this December when they face off against Juan Manuel Marquez. Whereas the Filipino champ’s previous loss was disregarded because of the porous judging that bout will be remembered for, expecting the same sort of treatment this time around is unrealistic. If the unthinkable happens and Manny ultimately falls to Marquez, there will be no more excuses.

Given the stakes, Pacquiao (understandably) doesn’t want to leave anything to chance on this go-round. Even though he hasn't recorded a knockout in nearly three years, putting Marquez down for the long count is precisely how he is planning to win his next match. His trainer, Freddie Roach, confirmed this much during an interview with Boxing Scene this weekend.

“It’s always going to be a competitive fight,” he said. “Manny told me he needed a knockout to win. I’m going to hold him to it, and we’re going go in there looking for a knockout. Something we didn’t do before, we need to do now, because we’re not going to win a decision.”

He’s right. Last June’s Timothy Bradley fight made it okay for judges to rule against Pacquiao. He will no longer get the benefit of the doubt that he has gotten in the past; anything other than a clear-cut victory could be construed as a loss.

With everything that’s on the line, Pacquiao must be training like crazy for his upcoming bout, right? He must have gotten to the U.S. early, just to get a head start on all the work that he needs to do, right? Right? Wrong. Yesterday, reports surfaced that the champ put off his trip to the U.S. because of some pressing political issues that had come up.

You will recall, Bob Arum was less than pleased with this latest development.

"Manny has to decide whether he is a boxer or he's a politician,” he said.

For, for what it’s worth, Roach was much less animated about the delay.

“He’s going to be a couple days late,” Roach said in that same Boxing Scene interview. “I talked to him this morning. He’ll be here by the mid-week.”

“We have eight weeks until the fight. I’m not really worried about it. He’s running now. He’s getting in shape, and that’s all we do the first couple weeks anyway. The sparring won’t start until about six weeks out, so it should be no problem.”

Let’s hope not.

Pacquiao vs. Marquez IV goes down from the MGM Grand on Dec. 8.

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Juan Manuel Marquez Doesn’t Just Want to Beat Manny Pacquiao, He Wants to Make a Point

When Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez square off this December, you will see two guys who couldn’t care less about the lasting ramifications from their bout. Neither will be concerned with what it does to their wins and losses totals. Neither will be concerned with the amount of damage they inflict or personally take. Neither will be concerned with what the future holds. Both will be out to do one thing and one thing only: make a point.

Even though Marquez has never actually beaten his Filipino arch rival, he has come a lot closer to doing it (legitimately, not with the help of horrible judges) than any other fighter has in eight years. There are a lot of boxing fans out there, in fact, who believe that he was the rightful winner of their November 2011 showdown. And because he has come so close, the fact that he couldn’t actually pull out a win officially must be killing Marquez inside.
On this go-round, he is going to come with some aggression. He isn’t going to be relying on judges to hand him a victory he doesn’t deserve a la Timothy Bradley – he’s going to take that victory himself.

During a recent interview with the good folks at Boxing Scene, Marquez’s trainer, Nacho Beristain, made it abundantly clear that his guy was coming after Pacquiao.

"We want to gain a little more speed. In the third fight we were able to keep up with him, and we want to use that approach again to see if we can put him down on the canvas at least once," Beristain said.

"I would like to believe, and hope to God, that we put him down once or twice - but it is a bit difficult because the Filipino is also a warrior and a very tough fighter. Last time we thought we had the fight in the bag, but look at what happened...you can never tell what the judges are thinking."

Can you believe that? Most guys who have taken on the same foe on multiple occasions and yet never actually won just want that elusive W – not Marquez, though. He is an old school fighter who values pride and respect above all else. And that’s why he has the take no prisoners attitude heading into this one that he absolutely has to have.

He understands the stakes. So does Pacquiao.

This is going to be a great fight.


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Freddie Roach Explains Why Manny Pacquiao Chose Juan Manuel Marquez over Timothy Bradley

Manny Pacquiao is a better fighter than Timothy Bradley. Everyone knew that heading into the pair’s June 9 bout, and everyone knew it coming out. Two judges inexplicably ruling that Bradley won a match that he clearly hadn’t won did not change anyone’s perception of either man. All it did, really, was create a terrible excuse for a rematch – a rematch that 99 percent of the boxing world didn’t want to see.

Thankfully, Pacquiao decided against fighting Bradley again this December. When presented with the option of either squaring off against Juan Manuel Marquez for a fourth time or Bradley a second time, he opted for option No. 1. And while seeing the same fight four times obviously has its drawbacks, most boxing aficionados recognized that this was the best option available.

The one sticking point about Pacquiao’s decision, however, was nobody really knowing why he made it. Whereas the general consensus was that Marquez got the nod because of what a weak pay-per-view (PPV) draw Bradley is, Pacquiao’s advisor, Michael Koncz, fought back against that reasoning. He maintained that Manny made the decision that he made because he wanted to put on the best fight possible for fans.

“It’s all about the fans,” Koncz said last week. “Styles make fights. Manny felt there’s more entertainment value for his fans fighting Marquez rather than Bradley.”

Most fans took that with a grain of salt. Athletes love their fans, sure, but they love their money a lot more. The only thing about fans that Pacquiao and his team contemplated prior to deciding on Marquez was how many of them would be willing to dish out dough for PPVs – not what the best course of action for maximum fan enjoyment would be.

During a recent interview with Boxing Scene, Freddie Roach more or less confirmed that notion.

"[I wanted Pacquiao to face] someone else. To me [Marquez] was the third [choice]. I'd like to get that Bradley [rematch] out of the way and redeem ourselves there and all we need to go is get two new judges," Roach said, admitting that he was hoping for a different Dec. 8 showdown.

"This does [make more business sense]. Bradley sold six tickets last time and he'll sell less next time. That's about [the size] of his audience. That's why we are not fighting him, there's no business [in that fight]. There is no money in that fight.”

And there it is – the Marquez fight is happening because it makes more business sense. Not because it will be more entertaining for the fans. If the situation were reversed and Bradley was a great PPV draw but Marquez would make for the more interesting opponent, who do you think Pacquiao would have selected as his next foe?

Again, it’s fine. We all understand that this is a business. But it would just be nice if these folks didn’t put on an act. Everyone knows what’s what. Everyone knows that money is the most important thing.

Just be honest with the fans – they won’t hold it against you.



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