Beristain sees Manny-Marquez 4th showdown - The Philippine Star » News » Sports:
'via Blog this'
Beristain sees Manny-Marquez 4th showdown
By Abac Cordero (The Philippine Star) Updated January 10, 2012 12:00 AM Comments (11)
SHARE: facebook yahoo! buzz
MANILA, Philippines - After 36 rounds and three controversial decisions, Manny Pacquiao is still feeling the itch to fight Juan Manuel Marquez.
Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if Pacquiao chooses Marquez from among the four candidates for his next opponent.
Pacquiao has Marquez, Miguel Cotto, Tim Bradley and Lamont Peterson in the list that was prepared by his promoter, Bob Arum.
And while Marquez poses the biggest threat to Pacquiao, the fight with the 38-year-old Mexican should be the biggest for the Filipino champ.
That’s the fight other than Floyd Mayweather Jr. of course. Mayweather’s jail term was suspended from Jan. 6 until June, and he’s now looking for an opponent on May 5.
“Pacquiao is obsessed with beating Juan,” Nacho Beristain, who was in Marquez’ corner in all three fights with Pacquiao, told www.boxingscene.com yesterday.
Beristain thinks Pacquiao will choose Marquez as his next opponent. Arum said he’s looking at June 9 or June 16 as the day the reigning WBO welterweight king returns to the ring.
Beristain, in fact, sounded optimistic that a fourth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez will take place that this early he’s already looking for ways to make his ward better than he was before.
“I thought Juan Manuel was a little slow, but he was very strong,” said Beristain as he looked back at the last fight in Nov. 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Marquez moved up in weight to meet Pacquiao at a catchweight of 144 lb, and proved a lot of people wrong when he lasted at 12 rounds against the best welterweight there is today.
Marquez did not only last long. He also landed the clearer punches even as Pacquiao landed more, and earned the nod of two judges, the other one calling it a draw, for a narrow victory.
It was perhaps the closest Marquez got to beating Pacquiao after going down three times before salvaging a draw in 2004, and being floored once before dropping a close decision in 2008.
Beristain said if given another chance, Marquez will do better, and perhaps win it this time.
“He will work on that aspect. With more explosive speed, I’m sure Juan would have taken Pacquiao down. It was clear that Pacquiao was desperate (in the third fight),” said Beristain.
“And at times he was attacking with everything but he couldn’t knock (Juan) out,” the trainer of Mexican champions also told www.boxingscene.com .
Pacquiao had already shown interest in facing Marquez a fourth and hopefully the last time, but said he would only take the fight if he’s guaranteed $28 million.
Beristain said there’s nothing wrong with that as long as Marquez also gets what he deserves. For the third fight, the Filipino slugger got a little over $20 million, and the Mexican $5 million.
Marquez should get more than that for a fourth fight, perhaps even twice as much.
Arum is scheduled to arrive in Manila today to sit down with Pacquiao. It’s not yet clear though if the meeting would take place in Manila.
Pacquiao’s wife, Jinkee, is celebrating her birthday on Jan. 12, and a simple party has been prepared in General Santos City.
Pacquiao can ask Arum to come down for a day or two so they could tackle the issues pertaining to his next fight. Or he flies in and out of Manila to get things done.
No comments:
Post a Comment