Friday, April 24, 2015
Foot Locker – It’s Really Happening feat. Manny Pacquiao Part 2
"The last time Manny Pacquiao was in a Foot Locker commercial he found out the fight that everyone wanted to see was finally happening. Except it wasn’t really, it was just a commercial. But now it is. Even though this is also a Foot Locker commercial."
Thursday, April 23, 2015
The Matrix: Neo meets Pacman
Add Keanu Reeves to the list of celebrity supporters of Manny Pacquiao in his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 2.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Thursday, April 9, 2015
RollingStone: Manny Pacquiao and the Fight of His Life
By Michaell Weinreb
There is the inner circle, there is the outer circle and there are the ever-widening concentric circles of hangers-on who drift about the periphery like a distant star hovering around the sun. There are the members of the Filipino media who show up every day, and there are the members of the American media who show up in fits and starts (today Rolling Stone, tomorrow The New York Times), and there are the HBO executives, and there is the promoter and there is the camera crew the promoter hired to document everything.
There is the security detail and there are the pressmen and the managers and the canines and the trainers and the celebrities, because it would not be a Pacquiao camp without the celebrities. One day, it was Chappelle; on another day, it was Robert Duvall; sometimes, it's Mark Wahlberg, and a day or two from now, it will be a fellow Christian soldier named Tebow. On this particular afternoon, a sedan lurches forward into one of the spots and discharges a gadfly of a fight promoter named Bob Arum, who casually introduces his driver as Bill Friedkin, the man who directed the most iconic celluloid car chase of the 20th century.
Continue reading HERE
There is the inner circle, there is the outer circle and there are the ever-widening concentric circles of hangers-on who drift about the periphery like a distant star hovering around the sun. There are the members of the Filipino media who show up every day, and there are the members of the American media who show up in fits and starts (today Rolling Stone, tomorrow The New York Times), and there are the HBO executives, and there is the promoter and there is the camera crew the promoter hired to document everything.
There is the security detail and there are the pressmen and the managers and the canines and the trainers and the celebrities, because it would not be a Pacquiao camp without the celebrities. One day, it was Chappelle; on another day, it was Robert Duvall; sometimes, it's Mark Wahlberg, and a day or two from now, it will be a fellow Christian soldier named Tebow. On this particular afternoon, a sedan lurches forward into one of the spots and discharges a gadfly of a fight promoter named Bob Arum, who casually introduces his driver as Bill Friedkin, the man who directed the most iconic celluloid car chase of the 20th century.
Continue reading HERE
Don't Believe The Hype: Mayweather-Pacquiao Is Not Good Vs. Evil
by Diana Moskovitz
Deadspin
The many failings of Floyd Mayweather to follow the basic rules on how to be a good human being are well documented. He’s a serial woman beater who once evicted his father and pleaded no contest to threatening his children. His odiousness speaks for itself. But his competitor, Manny Pacquiao, is busy (via his handlers) doing his best to paint himself as a good guy, the man who will get revenge for all the wrong Floyd has wrought on the world. Good vs. evil is an easy sell of a narrative, and sportswriters have been quick to buy it as fact. But it’s insultingly shallow, and requires conveniently forgetting that Pacquiao is a shithead too.
Like Mayweather, Pacquiao’s dirty history is a mixture of personal failures amplified by the power that comes with wealth and celebrity. He has spoken out against gay marriage, insisting he has gay relatives but still opposes same-sex marriage because, “It’s the law of God,” was a mostly absent congressman in his home country last year, and didn’t step in when a basketball player in the Philippines was fired for stating the obvious—that the 5-foot-7 Pacquiao’s basketball career was a stunt and a joke. His concerns about the laws of God apparently didn’t conflict with allegedly mauling a fellow politician or cheating on his wife. The Phillippine government says he owes tens of millions in back taxes. And should you try to take comfort in thinking that perhaps Pacquiao at least respects women more than Mayweather does, remember that he fought against legislation in the Philippines that would mandate sex education, subsidize contraception, and expand family-planning offerings. And he is not just some random celebrity with a platform; he’s a politician who actively affects policy. That’s objectively more harmful than the usual powerless bigot-athlete.
Freddie Roach wants you to forget all that. Given his man’s cut of the PPV pot, he’s literally banking on it. The longtime trainer fed mindlessly scribbling reporters their talking points, and they’ve dutifully repeated them. USA Today is just one example, in a piece under the all-knowing headline.
“Pacquiao fueled by Mayweather’s domestic abuse.”
“Manny is really against domestic violence,” Roach said. “It is a big issue maybe in the Philippines for him and being a congressman he can control some of that stuff. That is a big plus for me that Manny does not like the guy, I think the killer instinct is going to come back a lot faster.” ...
“(I see the fight as) good against evil, yes. I have even thought about bringing a couple of the metro cops from Vegas in to tell Manny how many times (Mayweather) has been arrested and how bad of a guy he is, but I decided I can’t go that far. He already doesn’t like him; I think we are OK.
The article doesn’t say what, if anything, Pacquiao has done or might do back in the Philippines to prevent domestic violence. Hell, it doesn’t even quote Pacquiao himself. This is pure, cynical salesmanship from Roach, who worked with post-prison Mike Tyson, a convicted rapist whose victim testified that the boxer laughed about the assault while she cried.
Then there’s Rolling Stone, which portrays Roach utilizing Mayweather’s badness as a training tool:
But with Mayweather, Roach can work Manny’s natural antipathy: He’s a bad guy, he’ll whisper into Pacquiao’s ear sometimes. He’s bad for boxing. You’ll be doing a courtesy to the world if you knock him out.
“He knows he’s a bad person,” Roach says.
At least reporter Michael Weinreb actually asked Pacquiao about his feelings toward Mayweather, though he got an answer oblique to Roach’s straightforward trope-usage. “Usually I don’t comment on his personal life,” Pacquiao tells Weinreb. Perhaps that’s true; it’s also a convenient way of outsourcing the media manipulation while keeping his hands clean.
Even older than leaving the hype to the hype men is the urge to package a fight in biblical terms, good vs. evil, the bad boy vs. the avenging angel, the evil woman-beater versus the defender of all. To see exactly how much stock to put into these roles, recall Mayweather’s 2001 bout with Diego Corrales, who had been charged with assaulting his pregnant wife. Leading up to the fight, Mayweather declared he would beat Corrales for “every battered woman in the world.” Mayweather won and went on to be arrested multiple times on charges that he violently battered the women in his life. Virtue is fungible.
Which leaves us here, three weeks from the biggest fight of the young century. There are plenty of reasons, based purely on what’s likely to happen inside the ring, to avoid the fight. But sports is never just about the act itself. It’s about the the storylines, the unknown, the unexpected, the sides we choose, and what those choices say about us. We do define ourselves by the team or the athlete we back. And in this case, we have no comfortable choices.
Sure this all can be categorized and analyzed until the lesser evil is identified to our satisfaction. What’s worse, beating up women or trying to make it harder for millions of them to get birth control? Do you mind less the absent politician or the abusive father? Which is easier to tolerate, a man who leveraged his fame and fortune for favors across the Philippines or a man who leveraged his fame and fortune for favors across the United States? Athletes are human; they exist on the same ethical continuum as the rest of us, stretching from saints to sinners with a long, murky middle where most reside. It should be enough to sell this fight that Mayweather and Pacquiao are the two best boxers of their generation. But don’t let the appeal to morality confuse you: that’s all they’re good for.
Deadspin
The many failings of Floyd Mayweather to follow the basic rules on how to be a good human being are well documented. He’s a serial woman beater who once evicted his father and pleaded no contest to threatening his children. His odiousness speaks for itself. But his competitor, Manny Pacquiao, is busy (via his handlers) doing his best to paint himself as a good guy, the man who will get revenge for all the wrong Floyd has wrought on the world. Good vs. evil is an easy sell of a narrative, and sportswriters have been quick to buy it as fact. But it’s insultingly shallow, and requires conveniently forgetting that Pacquiao is a shithead too.
Like Mayweather, Pacquiao’s dirty history is a mixture of personal failures amplified by the power that comes with wealth and celebrity. He has spoken out against gay marriage, insisting he has gay relatives but still opposes same-sex marriage because, “It’s the law of God,” was a mostly absent congressman in his home country last year, and didn’t step in when a basketball player in the Philippines was fired for stating the obvious—that the 5-foot-7 Pacquiao’s basketball career was a stunt and a joke. His concerns about the laws of God apparently didn’t conflict with allegedly mauling a fellow politician or cheating on his wife. The Phillippine government says he owes tens of millions in back taxes. And should you try to take comfort in thinking that perhaps Pacquiao at least respects women more than Mayweather does, remember that he fought against legislation in the Philippines that would mandate sex education, subsidize contraception, and expand family-planning offerings. And he is not just some random celebrity with a platform; he’s a politician who actively affects policy. That’s objectively more harmful than the usual powerless bigot-athlete.
Freddie Roach wants you to forget all that. Given his man’s cut of the PPV pot, he’s literally banking on it. The longtime trainer fed mindlessly scribbling reporters their talking points, and they’ve dutifully repeated them. USA Today is just one example, in a piece under the all-knowing headline.
“Pacquiao fueled by Mayweather’s domestic abuse.”
“Manny is really against domestic violence,” Roach said. “It is a big issue maybe in the Philippines for him and being a congressman he can control some of that stuff. That is a big plus for me that Manny does not like the guy, I think the killer instinct is going to come back a lot faster.” ...
“(I see the fight as) good against evil, yes. I have even thought about bringing a couple of the metro cops from Vegas in to tell Manny how many times (Mayweather) has been arrested and how bad of a guy he is, but I decided I can’t go that far. He already doesn’t like him; I think we are OK.
The article doesn’t say what, if anything, Pacquiao has done or might do back in the Philippines to prevent domestic violence. Hell, it doesn’t even quote Pacquiao himself. This is pure, cynical salesmanship from Roach, who worked with post-prison Mike Tyson, a convicted rapist whose victim testified that the boxer laughed about the assault while she cried.
Then there’s Rolling Stone, which portrays Roach utilizing Mayweather’s badness as a training tool:
But with Mayweather, Roach can work Manny’s natural antipathy: He’s a bad guy, he’ll whisper into Pacquiao’s ear sometimes. He’s bad for boxing. You’ll be doing a courtesy to the world if you knock him out.
“He knows he’s a bad person,” Roach says.
At least reporter Michael Weinreb actually asked Pacquiao about his feelings toward Mayweather, though he got an answer oblique to Roach’s straightforward trope-usage. “Usually I don’t comment on his personal life,” Pacquiao tells Weinreb. Perhaps that’s true; it’s also a convenient way of outsourcing the media manipulation while keeping his hands clean.
Even older than leaving the hype to the hype men is the urge to package a fight in biblical terms, good vs. evil, the bad boy vs. the avenging angel, the evil woman-beater versus the defender of all. To see exactly how much stock to put into these roles, recall Mayweather’s 2001 bout with Diego Corrales, who had been charged with assaulting his pregnant wife. Leading up to the fight, Mayweather declared he would beat Corrales for “every battered woman in the world.” Mayweather won and went on to be arrested multiple times on charges that he violently battered the women in his life. Virtue is fungible.
Which leaves us here, three weeks from the biggest fight of the young century. There are plenty of reasons, based purely on what’s likely to happen inside the ring, to avoid the fight. But sports is never just about the act itself. It’s about the the storylines, the unknown, the unexpected, the sides we choose, and what those choices say about us. We do define ourselves by the team or the athlete we back. And in this case, we have no comfortable choices.
Sure this all can be categorized and analyzed until the lesser evil is identified to our satisfaction. What’s worse, beating up women or trying to make it harder for millions of them to get birth control? Do you mind less the absent politician or the abusive father? Which is easier to tolerate, a man who leveraged his fame and fortune for favors across the Philippines or a man who leveraged his fame and fortune for favors across the United States? Athletes are human; they exist on the same ethical continuum as the rest of us, stretching from saints to sinners with a long, murky middle where most reside. It should be enough to sell this fight that Mayweather and Pacquiao are the two best boxers of their generation. But don’t let the appeal to morality confuse you: that’s all they’re good for.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
RollingStone: Inside Manny Pacquiao's Fight Club
Last month, Rolling Stone sent author Michael Weinreb to Los Angeles, to spend a day with boxer Manny Pacquiao as he trained for his May 2 fight with Floyd Mayweather. Turns out, the sparring and speed-bag work was only part of the story – the constant circus that follows his every move was impossible to ignore (Pacquiao is arguably the most famous fighter in the world, after all).
"There is the inner circle, there is the outer circle and there are the ever-widening concentric circles of hangers-on who drift about the periphery like a distant star hovering around the sun," Weinreb writes of the scene at Wild Card.
"There are the members of the Filipino media who show up every day, and there are the members of the American media who show up in fits and starts, and there are the HBO executives, and there is the promoter and there is the camera crew the promoter hired to document everything. There is the security detail and there are the pressmen and the managers and the canines and the trainers and the celebrities, because it would not be a Pacquiao camp without the celebrities."
It also would not be a Pacquiao camp without lunch at his favorite Thai restaurant, Nat's, a few jokes from entourage members Buboy and Nonoy or trainer Freddie Roach filling the swear jar he's set up at ringside ($5 per profanity, by the way). Through it all, photographer Leslie dela Vega snapped away, and here's her photo diary of the day with the Pride of the Philippines.
Continue reading HERE
"There is the inner circle, there is the outer circle and there are the ever-widening concentric circles of hangers-on who drift about the periphery like a distant star hovering around the sun," Weinreb writes of the scene at Wild Card.
"There are the members of the Filipino media who show up every day, and there are the members of the American media who show up in fits and starts, and there are the HBO executives, and there is the promoter and there is the camera crew the promoter hired to document everything. There is the security detail and there are the pressmen and the managers and the canines and the trainers and the celebrities, because it would not be a Pacquiao camp without the celebrities."
It also would not be a Pacquiao camp without lunch at his favorite Thai restaurant, Nat's, a few jokes from entourage members Buboy and Nonoy or trainer Freddie Roach filling the swear jar he's set up at ringside ($5 per profanity, by the way). Through it all, photographer Leslie dela Vega snapped away, and here's her photo diary of the day with the Pride of the Philippines.
Continue reading HERE
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Friday, December 7, 2012
LA Times: Juan Manuel Marquez out to rewrite legacy in fourth Pacquiao fight
In three fights against Manny Pacquiao, Marquez has lost two close
decisions and fought to a draw with the Filipino boxer. He has worked
hard and bulked up for their fourth bout Saturday in Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS -- Manny Pacquiao will smile his way to the ring Saturday night. His opponent, Juan Manuel Marquez, will glare.
Pacquiao will try to beat his Mexican rival for the third time in four fights by again throwing caution to the wind with flurries of punches.
Marquez will again be more calculating. Convinced he's the smarter of the two in the ring, he has strengthened his body as never before at age 39, hell-bent to impose his will and finally have his hand raised in victory against Pacquiao after suffering two agonizingly close decision losses and a draw.
"This fight is more important than the last three," Marquez said of Saturday's non-title welterweight bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. "Because it's for my legacy. The honor. The pride.
"For everything," Marquez said.
In this rivalry, those words are as fiercely serious as the hard stare Marquez delivers.
Remember, in 2004, Marquez was knocked down by Pacquiao three times in the first round, scraped himself up each time and rallied to win nearly every other round to gain a draw.
Their 2008 battle was incredibly narrow, Pacquiao winning a split decision because of an early knockdown. And their November 2011 classic was met by a roar of boos when Pacquiao was declared the winner by majority decision.
Marquez insisted this week that his career will not be defined by the Pacquiao fights.
Who's he kidding?
Sports history is loaded with greats best remembered for losing to their foil, or falling short of clutching the brass ring.
Joe Frazier lost two of his three fights with Muhammad Ali. The Lakers' Jerry West was a tragic hero when his team lost six NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics' dynasty in the 1960s. Charles Barkley, Dan Marino and Barry Bonds are others who come to mind.
Is the die cast for Marquez? Or can he alter the story?
Marquez undoubtedly has turned over every stone to search for the way to finally defeat Pacquiao, which explains his controversial union with strength and conditioning coach Angel "Memo" Heredia.
Earlier in his career, Heredia was a steroid supplier to track stars Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery, then became a government informant in the prosecution's case against track coach Trevor Graham.
Marquez and Heredia say that the boxer's new muscular build came about naturally in training. Heredia called Marquez "Hulk" at Wednesday's news conference.
"Anyone who wants to test me, I invite him to have spent the last four months with me, to have got up at 4 a.m. with me every day, do the eight hours of work, and then tell me whether I'm doing this naturally or not," Marquez said.
Marquez's weightlifting regimen in Mexico City and his conditioning in the mountains, at 14,000 feet above sea level, have brought him to peak shape before his fourth bout against Pacquiao, said Marquez's veteran trainer, Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain.
Marquez can't wait to unload his mighty left uppercut on Pacquiao, Heredia said.
"Pacquiao is a guy who's as difficult to knock down as a tree trunk," Heredia said. "Last fight, Juan hit him so hard he fell back a meter. We want to hit him again like that and see what happens.
"And Pacquiao hits hard, with those snappy and strong punches. There's solid strength and speed strength, and we have both now."
Beristain added, "My fighter's a lot smarter than Pacquiao, and a superior technical fighter."
The betting public anticipates another close brawl. Last year, Pacquiao was an 8-to-1 favorite at Las Vegas sports books. On Thursday, MGM Resorts listed Pacquiao at less than a 3-to-1 favorite.
Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, doesn't expect Marquez to change, not after 61 pro fights: "He's a counterpuncher through and through. I wish he'd be more aggressive like he's saying. I don't think it'll happen," Roach said.
"We'll remain the aggressor, and aggressors, as we've shown, win close rounds. I want Manny fighting all three minutes of every round. With more action, there'll be no question who the better man is."
Fueled by disappointment that has amplified with each Pacquiao fight — Marquez believes he won all three — the Mexican fighter said he converted his rage into his preparations for this fight.
"My highest motivation is wanting to have my hand raised," Marquez said. "I don't want to live with people telling me, 'We thought you won.' I want to really know I won."
Pacquiao said a major reason he wanted a fourth Marquez fight is to quiet his adversary, once and for all, to settle how each fighter will be remembered.
"He doesn't respect the decisions of the judges, so he needs to prove something Saturday," Pacquiao said. "But we expect to be more aggressive than ever, and I'm better prepared for the battle when it happens. I'm faster than him.
"It's not about the size. It's about the speed."
Right now, that's the epitaph. Marquez has one last chance to pound in new words.
LAS VEGAS -- Manny Pacquiao will smile his way to the ring Saturday night. His opponent, Juan Manuel Marquez, will glare.
Pacquiao will try to beat his Mexican rival for the third time in four fights by again throwing caution to the wind with flurries of punches.
Marquez will again be more calculating. Convinced he's the smarter of the two in the ring, he has strengthened his body as never before at age 39, hell-bent to impose his will and finally have his hand raised in victory against Pacquiao after suffering two agonizingly close decision losses and a draw.
"This fight is more important than the last three," Marquez said of Saturday's non-title welterweight bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. "Because it's for my legacy. The honor. The pride.
"For everything," Marquez said.
In this rivalry, those words are as fiercely serious as the hard stare Marquez delivers.
Remember, in 2004, Marquez was knocked down by Pacquiao three times in the first round, scraped himself up each time and rallied to win nearly every other round to gain a draw.
Their 2008 battle was incredibly narrow, Pacquiao winning a split decision because of an early knockdown. And their November 2011 classic was met by a roar of boos when Pacquiao was declared the winner by majority decision.
Marquez insisted this week that his career will not be defined by the Pacquiao fights.
Who's he kidding?
Sports history is loaded with greats best remembered for losing to their foil, or falling short of clutching the brass ring.
Joe Frazier lost two of his three fights with Muhammad Ali. The Lakers' Jerry West was a tragic hero when his team lost six NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics' dynasty in the 1960s. Charles Barkley, Dan Marino and Barry Bonds are others who come to mind.
Is the die cast for Marquez? Or can he alter the story?
Marquez undoubtedly has turned over every stone to search for the way to finally defeat Pacquiao, which explains his controversial union with strength and conditioning coach Angel "Memo" Heredia.
Earlier in his career, Heredia was a steroid supplier to track stars Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery, then became a government informant in the prosecution's case against track coach Trevor Graham.
Marquez and Heredia say that the boxer's new muscular build came about naturally in training. Heredia called Marquez "Hulk" at Wednesday's news conference.
"Anyone who wants to test me, I invite him to have spent the last four months with me, to have got up at 4 a.m. with me every day, do the eight hours of work, and then tell me whether I'm doing this naturally or not," Marquez said.
Marquez's weightlifting regimen in Mexico City and his conditioning in the mountains, at 14,000 feet above sea level, have brought him to peak shape before his fourth bout against Pacquiao, said Marquez's veteran trainer, Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain.
Marquez can't wait to unload his mighty left uppercut on Pacquiao, Heredia said.
"Pacquiao is a guy who's as difficult to knock down as a tree trunk," Heredia said. "Last fight, Juan hit him so hard he fell back a meter. We want to hit him again like that and see what happens.
"And Pacquiao hits hard, with those snappy and strong punches. There's solid strength and speed strength, and we have both now."
Beristain added, "My fighter's a lot smarter than Pacquiao, and a superior technical fighter."
The betting public anticipates another close brawl. Last year, Pacquiao was an 8-to-1 favorite at Las Vegas sports books. On Thursday, MGM Resorts listed Pacquiao at less than a 3-to-1 favorite.
Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, doesn't expect Marquez to change, not after 61 pro fights: "He's a counterpuncher through and through. I wish he'd be more aggressive like he's saying. I don't think it'll happen," Roach said.
"We'll remain the aggressor, and aggressors, as we've shown, win close rounds. I want Manny fighting all three minutes of every round. With more action, there'll be no question who the better man is."
Fueled by disappointment that has amplified with each Pacquiao fight — Marquez believes he won all three — the Mexican fighter said he converted his rage into his preparations for this fight.
"My highest motivation is wanting to have my hand raised," Marquez said. "I don't want to live with people telling me, 'We thought you won.' I want to really know I won."
Pacquiao said a major reason he wanted a fourth Marquez fight is to quiet his adversary, once and for all, to settle how each fighter will be remembered.
"He doesn't respect the decisions of the judges, so he needs to prove something Saturday," Pacquiao said. "But we expect to be more aggressive than ever, and I'm better prepared for the battle when it happens. I'm faster than him.
"It's not about the size. It's about the speed."
Right now, that's the epitaph. Marquez has one last chance to pound in new words.
Sports on Earth: WE MEET AGAIN
By Chuck Culpepper
LAS VEGAS -- One afternoon in the northern Philippines in March 2011, in the Baguio hotel that contains a boxing ring -- talk about amenities! -- Manny Pacquiao didn't come downstairs to train. Nobody fretted. Nobody blustered. Trainer Freddie Roach waited on a bench by a wall with a pulse rate that did not even hint at quickening. For one thing, he knew that Pacquiao's age begins with a "3" and mandates the occasional unexpected rest. For another, those training weeks qualified as excellent all told, and Pacquiao looked dazzling, far better than needed to dispatch the feckless Shane Mosley.
For another, you just can't expect kings to focus relentlessly, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant being exceptional.
And so a hushed afternoon brought a sportswriter's dream, a chance to bring along two ears and hear Freddie Roach. It gets no better.
Amid this anecdote nirvana, Roach enthused about his "best vacation ever," two weeks off to appear as a witness in a civil case involving Pacquiao and a former promoter. (Roach adored the whole process, the verbal sparring with lawyers.) He told of traveling the world to train the actor Mickey Rourke, and of the lunch the day after the 2009 Academy Awards of Rourke's nomination for "The Wrestler" and Sean Penn's win for "Milk." (Some of Rourke's friends teased him that he could have won if only he had played a gay wrestler.)
He told of following Pacquiao to a cathedral in either London or Paris -- it's hilarious that he couldn't remember which -- and how, while Pacquiao prayed, some Filipino fans spotted Roach off to the side, whereupon they came over to pose for photos, whereupon a priest approached Roach and told him to put away his camera, whereupon Roach replied with a profane adjective that he had not brought any camera, whereupon the priest threw Roach out of the cathedral. (Among the amusements of this motley trans-Pacific arrangement is the combo of a non-religious trainer with a boxer who has the practice gym hush for a minute before training so he can pray.)
You hear so much caution in sports-speak that boxing's bracing breeze of candor can exhilarate.
So Roach told of how Pacquiao once didn't speak to him for two days because Roach wouldn't divulge the snitch when the trainer learned Pacquiao had been out late, how nobody likes to wake Pacquiao from naps for the grumpiness, how Roach does not condone Pacquiao's daily pickup basketball but Pacquiao defiantly plays on until near-midnight of the last possible day, and how he considered the eight-division champion a man of such unusual kindness and generosity that Roach's worries include that eventually Pacquiao will give away everything.
So when you get to Pacquiao's fourth bout with Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday night, after three previous cliffhangers from which the judges gave two wins and one draw to Pacquiao, and when you see that Pacquiao's age is about hit 34, and you know that he's in the Philippine Congress, and you wonder about his last two blasé bouts (including the questionable win over Marquez 13 months ago and the very questionable loss to Timothy Bradley in June), and you vaguely mourn at the slow ebb of one of the most remarkable sports stories ever, Roach reassures.
When Roach reassures, you do listen.
"He's on fire," he said.
"The best Manny Pacquiao I've seen in a long time," he said.
"I think you're going to see the best Manny Pacquiao yet," he said.
"His focus is a lot better," he said.
There have been "four knockdowns in this training camp," a record, he said.
If you ask Roach where we stand on the long Pacquiao story arc, you get this: "This one arc goes way up now, and I think the last couple of fights, he was just going through the motions. This one brought back the fire in Manny Pacquiao. I know he needs that to win this fight and he's given me everything that I've asked for."
Pacquiao: "My focus is to fight hard."
Promoter Bob Arum, turning a sterling 81 on Saturday: "Really tremendously focused, the whole training session."
At the press conference, there's much talk about not going 12 rounds, about neither man leaving it to the judges, whom Marquez thinks have slighted him against Pacquiao and Pacquiao thinks slighted him against Bradley.
Thereby does a match that had the potential for dreariness -- Really? A fourth time? -- amass intrigue by the bucketful.
The poverty in the Philippines can burn its way into memory in a single Saturday stroll. People lie conked-out on Manila sidewalks. Children with grimy shins sell food on boulevard dividers. To think that one of those children grew up in the extreme south on dirt floors under holy roofs … then stowed away on a boat to Manila at 15 … then trained and hung out behind kitchen doors awaiting leftover food from restaurant managers … and went to cinemas with a friend just to look at the movie posters outside while trying to picture the images moving ... and sold food just like these kids now … then showed up at 22 as an Asia flyweight champion with a promoter in Roach's Los Angeles gym one day in June 2001, speaking no English … then had Roach "catch" him to reveal a phenomenal snap on the punches that the trainer found almost bewilderingly peerless … then became Manny Pacquiao, well …
I do get all biased.
I do want that story to keep going.
LAS VEGAS -- One afternoon in the northern Philippines in March 2011, in the Baguio hotel that contains a boxing ring -- talk about amenities! -- Manny Pacquiao didn't come downstairs to train. Nobody fretted. Nobody blustered. Trainer Freddie Roach waited on a bench by a wall with a pulse rate that did not even hint at quickening. For one thing, he knew that Pacquiao's age begins with a "3" and mandates the occasional unexpected rest. For another, those training weeks qualified as excellent all told, and Pacquiao looked dazzling, far better than needed to dispatch the feckless Shane Mosley.
And so a hushed afternoon brought a sportswriter's dream, a chance to bring along two ears and hear Freddie Roach. It gets no better.
Amid this anecdote nirvana, Roach enthused about his "best vacation ever," two weeks off to appear as a witness in a civil case involving Pacquiao and a former promoter. (Roach adored the whole process, the verbal sparring with lawyers.) He told of traveling the world to train the actor Mickey Rourke, and of the lunch the day after the 2009 Academy Awards of Rourke's nomination for "The Wrestler" and Sean Penn's win for "Milk." (Some of Rourke's friends teased him that he could have won if only he had played a gay wrestler.)
He told of following Pacquiao to a cathedral in either London or Paris -- it's hilarious that he couldn't remember which -- and how, while Pacquiao prayed, some Filipino fans spotted Roach off to the side, whereupon they came over to pose for photos, whereupon a priest approached Roach and told him to put away his camera, whereupon Roach replied with a profane adjective that he had not brought any camera, whereupon the priest threw Roach out of the cathedral. (Among the amusements of this motley trans-Pacific arrangement is the combo of a non-religious trainer with a boxer who has the practice gym hush for a minute before training so he can pray.)
You hear so much caution in sports-speak that boxing's bracing breeze of candor can exhilarate.
So Roach told of how Pacquiao once didn't speak to him for two days because Roach wouldn't divulge the snitch when the trainer learned Pacquiao had been out late, how nobody likes to wake Pacquiao from naps for the grumpiness, how Roach does not condone Pacquiao's daily pickup basketball but Pacquiao defiantly plays on until near-midnight of the last possible day, and how he considered the eight-division champion a man of such unusual kindness and generosity that Roach's worries include that eventually Pacquiao will give away everything.
So when you get to Pacquiao's fourth bout with Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday night, after three previous cliffhangers from which the judges gave two wins and one draw to Pacquiao, and when you see that Pacquiao's age is about hit 34, and you know that he's in the Philippine Congress, and you wonder about his last two blasé bouts (including the questionable win over Marquez 13 months ago and the very questionable loss to Timothy Bradley in June), and you vaguely mourn at the slow ebb of one of the most remarkable sports stories ever, Roach reassures.
When Roach reassures, you do listen.
"He's on fire," he said.
"The best Manny Pacquiao I've seen in a long time," he said.
"I think you're going to see the best Manny Pacquiao yet," he said.
"His focus is a lot better," he said.
There have been "four knockdowns in this training camp," a record, he said.
If you ask Roach where we stand on the long Pacquiao story arc, you get this: "This one arc goes way up now, and I think the last couple of fights, he was just going through the motions. This one brought back the fire in Manny Pacquiao. I know he needs that to win this fight and he's given me everything that I've asked for."
Pacquiao: "My focus is to fight hard."
Promoter Bob Arum, turning a sterling 81 on Saturday: "Really tremendously focused, the whole training session."
At the press conference, there's much talk about not going 12 rounds, about neither man leaving it to the judges, whom Marquez thinks have slighted him against Pacquiao and Pacquiao thinks slighted him against Bradley.
Thereby does a match that had the potential for dreariness -- Really? A fourth time? -- amass intrigue by the bucketful.
The poverty in the Philippines can burn its way into memory in a single Saturday stroll. People lie conked-out on Manila sidewalks. Children with grimy shins sell food on boulevard dividers. To think that one of those children grew up in the extreme south on dirt floors under holy roofs … then stowed away on a boat to Manila at 15 … then trained and hung out behind kitchen doors awaiting leftover food from restaurant managers … and went to cinemas with a friend just to look at the movie posters outside while trying to picture the images moving ... and sold food just like these kids now … then showed up at 22 as an Asia flyweight champion with a promoter in Roach's Los Angeles gym one day in June 2001, speaking no English … then had Roach "catch" him to reveal a phenomenal snap on the punches that the trainer found almost bewilderingly peerless … then became Manny Pacquiao, well …
I do get all biased.
I do want that story to keep going.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
"Charles & Reggie: Toe to Toe with Manny Pacquiao" explodes on TNT tonight
We all know that Manny Pacquiao loves basketball and is a big fan of the NBA. It is well-known that on numerous occassions, he would defy his trainer Freddie Roach's order not to play the game during training just so he can play pick-up basketball with his friends.
But if there is any doubt left about the Filipino boxing superstar's passion for the game, we only need to remember his fight with Timothy Bradley last June wherein Top Rank head honcho Bob Arum decided to delay the start of the main event so that Pacquiao could watch Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat.
We also know that NBA Legends and Hall of Famers Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller are big boxing aficionados. They are also regular fixtures at big time fights in Las Vegas. And NBA fans have seen Charles Barkley figured in a scuffle with fellow TNT analyst Shaquille O'Neal eons ago during one of their games, but if we are talking about Sir Charles' boxing skills, that's another story.
On numerous occasions, both Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller have been very vocal about their love of prizefighting as well as professing their admiration for Manny Pacquiao during their coverage of NBA games on TNT.
And in last week's Thursday night telecast of the Miami-San Antonio game, Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller spoke about their experience working out with Manny Pacquiao.
Charles Barkley: “We spent a day with Manny Pacquiao and Freddie Roach, and let me tell you something — one of the great days of my life. “
"I don’t wanna brag, but there’s no doubt in my mind I could knock Manny Pacquiao out."
To which, Reggie Miller disagreed, “No, you can’t. Manny (Pacquiao) call me, let’s set this up.”
Now, there is no doubt that Reggie Miller is one of the best shooters to ever play in the NBA. Yes, there is no doubt that Charles Barkley is one of the best talkers, if not the best bruisers to ever play in the NBA. And there is no doubt that Manny Pacquiao is one of the best boxers to ever display his wares in the ring. Aside from their common love for Boxing and Basketball, all three are funny and hilarious in their own special way.
Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller gave us a hint of what we should expect from the 30-minute TNT special wherein they went toe-to-toe with Manny Pacquiao.
"As a boxing fan, it was one of the coolest things I've ever done," Barkley said.
"As a professional athlete, it's always interesting to hear how other elite athletes prepare themselves for competition. Training with Manny was an experience I'll never forget," added Miller.
It will be interesting to see how Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller and Manny Pacquiao talk shop, interact, and literally and figuratively throw jabs at each other -- a welcome respite from all the monotony and serious talk about the fourth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, subjective odds, analysis and all, being peddled to every boxing fan by boxing scribes during fight week.
Let us keep our fingers crossed and hope that the well-advertised TNT special will not only be explosive but a knockout; Laugh-wise, that is.
Tonight, TNT will air "Charles & Reggie: Toe to Toe with Manny Pacquiao" after the NBA double-header between the Miami Heat and the New York Knicks at 8 p.m. ET, with the Dallas Mavericks at Phoenix Suns following at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Note: This article was previously posted on Detroit Fight Sports Examiner
Las Vegas Sun: Pacquiao knows fourth fight with Marquez could settle past arguments
Manny Pacquiao spent part of Wednesday morning running at the UNLV
track in preparation for his welterweight title fight Saturday at the MGM Grand against Juan Manuel Marquez.
At the end of the workout, Pacquiao challenged the UNLV track coach to a race in the 100 meters. The eight-division world champion lost ... barely.
Some would question why Pacquiao would be up to the strenuous challenge of sprints days before his fight. That didn’t bother his longtime trainer, Freddie Roach.
“He lost, but it was close,” Roach said of the race. “(Some wonder): 'Why do you let him do sprints?' He is having fun, and when Pacquiao is having fun, that shows me he is ready.”
This is the fourth meeting in the heated series between Pacquiao and Marquez with each of the previous bouts being decided by a close decision. Their initial meeting was scored a draw in 2004; Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs) won by split decision in 2008 and by majority decision last November — a result that sent several in the pro-Marquez crowd into a chorus of boos in protest.
But if Pacquiao’s results in training are any indication, the controversy of going to judges’ scorecards could be avoided this time around. Roach said Pacquiao has recorded four knockouts during camp sparring — the first time he’s had a knockout in training since 2009, before his fight with Miguel Cotto.
“He’s on fire right now,” Roach said. “He will hit me, just tap me, and he almost knocked me out yesterday. He is ready to go.”
Pacquiao’s most recent fight also ended in a questionable decision. His seven-year winning streak was snapped last June when judges awarded a split decision to Timothy Bradley in the WBO welterweight title fight despite Pacquiao dominating for most of the night.
This time around, even with the uproar caused from the fluke loss against Bradley, and the close calls previously against Marquez, Pacquiao won’t concern himself with the scoring.
“I never complained about the judges,” Pacquiao said. “The official, that is his job. We are boxers, and our job is to fight in the ring. Whatever the decision, we have to respect that. Even the last fight with Bradley, you never heard from my mouth complaining, and that was a very one-sided fight.”
Part of Pacquiao’s legacy is defined by his series with Marquez, which helps explain why they are fighting for a fourth time. This is an opportunity for Pacquiao to show his superiority to Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KOs), silencing claims he should have lost the previous fights.
Marquez was so disappointed in the outcome last November, he told reporters after the fight he was retiring. Now, he’s anxious to get redemption — something Pacquiao hopes leads to some good exchanges in the ring.
“I want to give him a chance to see if he can prove something,” Pacquiao said. “If you are claiming you won the fight, the rematch is an opportunity to be aggressive and create action first.”
Pacquiao, especially with what happened in the decision against Bradley, hopes to put on a show with Marquez. That, of course, would require Marquez meeting him halfway, he said.
“We can change by going toe-to-toe and exchange punches,” Pacquiao said. “He needs to do this because he claims to have won the fight. He just backs off and backs off and waits for the punches of (his) opponent.”
At the end of the workout, Pacquiao challenged the UNLV track coach to a race in the 100 meters. The eight-division world champion lost ... barely.
Some would question why Pacquiao would be up to the strenuous challenge of sprints days before his fight. That didn’t bother his longtime trainer, Freddie Roach.
“He lost, but it was close,” Roach said of the race. “(Some wonder): 'Why do you let him do sprints?' He is having fun, and when Pacquiao is having fun, that shows me he is ready.”
This is the fourth meeting in the heated series between Pacquiao and Marquez with each of the previous bouts being decided by a close decision. Their initial meeting was scored a draw in 2004; Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs) won by split decision in 2008 and by majority decision last November — a result that sent several in the pro-Marquez crowd into a chorus of boos in protest.
But if Pacquiao’s results in training are any indication, the controversy of going to judges’ scorecards could be avoided this time around. Roach said Pacquiao has recorded four knockouts during camp sparring — the first time he’s had a knockout in training since 2009, before his fight with Miguel Cotto.
“He’s on fire right now,” Roach said. “He will hit me, just tap me, and he almost knocked me out yesterday. He is ready to go.”
Pacquiao’s most recent fight also ended in a questionable decision. His seven-year winning streak was snapped last June when judges awarded a split decision to Timothy Bradley in the WBO welterweight title fight despite Pacquiao dominating for most of the night.
This time around, even with the uproar caused from the fluke loss against Bradley, and the close calls previously against Marquez, Pacquiao won’t concern himself with the scoring.
“I never complained about the judges,” Pacquiao said. “The official, that is his job. We are boxers, and our job is to fight in the ring. Whatever the decision, we have to respect that. Even the last fight with Bradley, you never heard from my mouth complaining, and that was a very one-sided fight.”
Part of Pacquiao’s legacy is defined by his series with Marquez, which helps explain why they are fighting for a fourth time. This is an opportunity for Pacquiao to show his superiority to Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KOs), silencing claims he should have lost the previous fights.
Marquez was so disappointed in the outcome last November, he told reporters after the fight he was retiring. Now, he’s anxious to get redemption — something Pacquiao hopes leads to some good exchanges in the ring.
“I want to give him a chance to see if he can prove something,” Pacquiao said. “If you are claiming you won the fight, the rematch is an opportunity to be aggressive and create action first.”
Pacquiao, especially with what happened in the decision against Bradley, hopes to put on a show with Marquez. That, of course, would require Marquez meeting him halfway, he said.
“We can change by going toe-to-toe and exchange punches,” Pacquiao said. “He needs to do this because he claims to have won the fight. He just backs off and backs off and waits for the punches of (his) opponent.”
Promoter says Manny Pacquiao could make more than $25 million from Saturday’s fight
By Kevin Iole
LAS VEGAS -- Manny Pacquiao will make in excess of $25 million for fighting Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden and could reach $30 million if the fight does a brisk business, Top Rank president Todd duBoef said.
Pacquiao's guarantee on the Nevada Athletic Commission contract is $8.595 million, executive director Keith Kizer said Wednesday. Marquez will earn a guarantee of $3 million. But pay-per-view boxers like Pacquiao and Marquez earn much more than their guarantees.
Pacquiao will get a large chunk from his upside on HBO Pay-Per-View sales, which are expected to exceed 1 million and could equal the 1.3 million sales he reached for his Nov. 12, 2011, bout with Marquez.
Adding in foreign television money, that will easily put Pacquiao over $25 million, duBoef said.
DuBoef said closed circuit locations that show the bout are up from the 2011 fight between them, continuing what he said was a trend in Pacquiao fights. He said that despite the controversial result in his June 9 loss to Timothy Bradley, interest in Pacquiao doesn't seem to have waned.
"We're getting more of the bars and restaurants, the chains, the Hooters, the Buffalo Wild Wings, places like that, buying the fight," duBoef said. "If [interest in Pacquiao is decreasing], I am not seeing it."
In a study of the highest-paid athletes from June 2011 through June 2012 done by Forbes, Pacquiao was second on the list with earnings of $62 million. According to Forbes, Pacquiao made $56 million in purses and $6 million in endorsements.
Rival boxer Floyd Mayweather was No. 1 on the list, with $85 million in earnings, all from purses. Golfer Tiger Woods was third with $59.4 million in earnings.
Pacquiao and Mayweather each had two fights in the time period that covers the Forbes' study. Pacquiao fought Marquez on Nov. 12, 2011, and met Bradley on June 9. Mayweather fought Victor Ortiz on Sept. 17, 2011, and Miguel Cotto on May 5, 2012.
A fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao still would be the richest fight in boxing. Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said he thinks it could do close to 3 million on pay-per-view.
Arum said fans are sick of the negotiations, but said if the fight were made, the interest would percolate again.
LAS VEGAS -- Manny Pacquiao will make in excess of $25 million for fighting Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden and could reach $30 million if the fight does a brisk business, Top Rank president Todd duBoef said.
Pacquiao's guarantee on the Nevada Athletic Commission contract is $8.595 million, executive director Keith Kizer said Wednesday. Marquez will earn a guarantee of $3 million. But pay-per-view boxers like Pacquiao and Marquez earn much more than their guarantees.
Pacquiao will get a large chunk from his upside on HBO Pay-Per-View sales, which are expected to exceed 1 million and could equal the 1.3 million sales he reached for his Nov. 12, 2011, bout with Marquez.
Adding in foreign television money, that will easily put Pacquiao over $25 million, duBoef said.
DuBoef said closed circuit locations that show the bout are up from the 2011 fight between them, continuing what he said was a trend in Pacquiao fights. He said that despite the controversial result in his June 9 loss to Timothy Bradley, interest in Pacquiao doesn't seem to have waned.
"We're getting more of the bars and restaurants, the chains, the Hooters, the Buffalo Wild Wings, places like that, buying the fight," duBoef said. "If [interest in Pacquiao is decreasing], I am not seeing it."
In a study of the highest-paid athletes from June 2011 through June 2012 done by Forbes, Pacquiao was second on the list with earnings of $62 million. According to Forbes, Pacquiao made $56 million in purses and $6 million in endorsements.
Rival boxer Floyd Mayweather was No. 1 on the list, with $85 million in earnings, all from purses. Golfer Tiger Woods was third with $59.4 million in earnings.
Pacquiao and Mayweather each had two fights in the time period that covers the Forbes' study. Pacquiao fought Marquez on Nov. 12, 2011, and met Bradley on June 9. Mayweather fought Victor Ortiz on Sept. 17, 2011, and Miguel Cotto on May 5, 2012.
A fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao still would be the richest fight in boxing. Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said he thinks it could do close to 3 million on pay-per-view.
Arum said fans are sick of the negotiations, but said if the fight were made, the interest would percolate again.
Boston Herald: Hope Pacs a punch
But Marquez won’t bite
By Ron BorgesThursday, December 6, 2012
LAS VEGAS — Manny Pacquiao wants something he’s not going to get Saturday night. Even his Hall of Fame trainer, Freddie Roach, conceded that yesterday.
In preparing for his fourth and very likely final fight with his longtime nemesis, Juan Manuel Marquez, Pacquiao said he intends to turn back the clock. He insists that despite turning 34 in a week he will fight likes he’s 24, returning to the hyper-aggressive style of his youth.
Perhaps he will, but after 60 prize fights and nobody knows how many thousands of rounds of sparring, few fighters reinvent themselves in that way. As unlikely as that seems however, Pacquiao is hoping for something even less likely.
“I want to fight him toe-to-toe,” Pacquiao said of the consummate counterpunching Marquez. “Either me or him. Both of us have two hands to use in the fight.
“He claims he won the (first three) fights, but he is always backing off, backing off. He claims he won, but he’s always waiting (for Pacquiao to throw and then counter him). You cannot say ‘I won’ but in the fight you are always backing off. It is contradictory. That’s his style, yes, but he needs to be aggressive and create the action.”
Fat chance.
Even Roach admits that if he were training Marquez he wouldn’t tell him to have an urge to merge. He would not advise him to attack, agreeing that at this stage of his career it is more than unlikely that the 39-year-old Marquez will abandon the style that has made him one of Mexico’s greatest fighters simply to please an annoyed Pacquiao.
“If we win another close decision it will be because we were the aggressor,” said Roach, who saw Pacquiao drop Marquez three times in the first round of their first fight and barely escape with a draw and then win a split-decision and a majority decision in fights many ringside observers and boxing lifers believe should have gone to Marquez.
“Defense doesn’t win fights,” Roach argued. “Offense wins fights. But I agree. People don’t change. That’s a very difficult thing to do. It’s (counterpunching) a smart way to fight Pacquiao, but you have to take the title. You can’t just have it given to you.
“In the second fight he had Manny cut and he had him on the ropes. Manny went there because he wanted to see if he had (guts) enough to finish him. He didn’t.
“If I was training him the one thing I’d say is if you hurt Manny you need to attack and finish him off, but he is what he is. If he wants to exchange more I think it’s in our favor.’’
That is why Marquez, for all his added muscle, will not satisfy Pacquiao’s fondest wish. He believes fervently he won the last two fights being who he is and many agree. The latest decision 13 months ago was boisterously booed by the crowd and it was difficult to find anyone outside of Manila who agreed with the decision going to a lackluster and often countered Pacquiao.
So why would Marquez change his style now? He has become one of the best fighters in the world as well as a man who will earn a minimum $6 million Saturday night because he is as adept a counterpuncher as there is in boxing.
That approach has baffled, boggled and beat upon Pacquiao for 34 of the 36 rounds they’ve fought (in the other two Marquez was knocked down a total of four times). By waiting for Pacquiao to throw and then countering him before he can escape, Marquez has controlled the tempo and angles of their fights most of the time, at times forcing Pacquaio to grow hesitant himself.
He will often lead with a sneaky right hand that is the bane of a southpaw like Pacquiao and has caught him with it repeatedly over those 36 rounds, driving him back time and again with counter shots and perfectly placed lead rights for which Pacquiao has had no answer.
Knowing that, the No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter in the world (behind Floyd Mayweather Jr.) has begun a final week of psychological warfare. Pacquiao’s hope is that somehow he can convince the consummate professional to act unprofessionally.
Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez set to fight again in Las Vegas
Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs) has won two of the three meetings. Marquez is hoping the outcome will be different this time. The first fight, in 2004, ended in a draw after Marquez fought back from three first-round knockdowns.
By Tim Smith/ NY Daily News
LAS VEGAS — Jake LaMotta always jokes that he fought Sugar Ray Robinson
so many times that the steady diet of “Sugar" gave him diabetes. The two
men fought six times and LaMotta won just once.
The two men will meet for the fourth time in eight years when they clash in a 12-round welterweight match Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on HBO.
There are no hidden secrets or surprise strategies that either man can spring on the other. Familiarity has sparked contempt on the part of Marquez, who said he doesn’t think that he can be friends with Pacquiao once they retire.
“If that’s how he feels... ” said Pacquiao, who harbors no ill feelings toward Marquez.
That might be because Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs) has won two of the three meetings. Marquez is hoping the outcome will be different this time. The first fight, in 2004, ended in a draw after Marquez fought back from three first-round knockdowns.
Then Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KOs) went on to lose a narrow split decision in 2008 and drop a majority decision last year.
“I know a lot of people think I won the other fights and I think I won those fights, but I want my hand raised in the ring,” Marquez said when asked what his motivation was for a fourth fight, other than money.
Promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank has been beating the drums for this fourth matchup, hoping that it can generate good PPV buys on a fight series that has been entertaining, but unsatisfying for Marquez and his loyal fans.
“There are people who say, ‘Who needs a fourth fight?’” Arum said. “I know that Marquez believes that he won the last two fights and he doesn’t want to leave it in the hands of the judges this time. Is it going to be as great as Hagler-Hearns? Maybe. But I think you’re going to see a different fight, a good fight, as good as the three that have gone before it.”
Arum is running out of viable opponents for the 33-year-old Pacquiao. There is little chance that we’ll ever see Pacquiao against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Pacquiao didn’t want to fight Timothy Bradley in a rematch. Bradley defeated Pacquiao in a very controversial split decision for the WBO welterweight title in June. He didn’t think that he could make as much money fighting Bradley again as he would fighting Marquez for a fourth time. After Marquez, the pickings are slim for a potential PPV foil for Pacquiao.
Marquez, 39, had even fewer options. After his last fight against Pacquiao, Marquez said he was angry and had vowed that he was never going to fight Pacquiao again. But after talking with his manager and his family, Marquez reconsidered and asked his promoter, Fernando Beltran, to contact Arum about making the fourth fight.
Marquez has assembled the same team he had before the last match to help him prepare for Pacquiao again, including Angel (Heredia) Hernandez, the controversial strength and conditioning trainer who was involved in the steroids scandal that sent track star Marion Jones to prison. Heredia supplied various track athletes with steroids and then ratted them out to federal prosecutors.
Hernandez and Marquez said they are doing everything above board in preparation to meet Pacquiao. Marquez has put on extra muscle in moving up from 140 to 147 pounds.
“Some of the guys who are into the sciences know what hard work and dedication in training will get you," Hernandez said.
Since the last time they met, Pacquiao has had his own bitter disappointment with the judges following a fight that he thought he won. He said he was not angry, and merely accepted the decision of the judges without complaint. However that experience has made him determined to keep it out of the judges’ hands this time around. Pacquiao wants a knockout this time.
“That would be the best (thing) if he gives me that chance and that opportunity," Pacquiao said.
Marquez does not see his series of fights with Pacquiao as a rich legacy in the history of boxing. But Pacquiao has a different view.
“It’s like Bob Arum was saying, when you think about Muhammad Ali, you think about (Joe) Frazier and when you think about Frazier you think about Muhammad Ali," Pacquiao said. “Now when you say Manny Pacquiao you think of Marquez and when you say Juan Manuel Marquez you think of Manny Pacquiao.”
Wall Street Journal: Back and Fourth They Go
By Gordon Marino
For much of boxing history, multiple meetings between contenders were common fare. Jake La Motta and Sugar Ray Robinson fought each other six times, enough for La Motta to crack, "I fought Sugar so often he almost gave me diabetes." Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, Joey Giardello and Dick Tiger, Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott, among others, fought four times.
Today major fights are less frequent and the promotional lead-ins much longer, so fistic trilogies and tetralogies are very rare. Nonetheless, as HBO analyst Larry Merchant observed, "Sometimes too much of a good thing is a good thing."
Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, two of the best boxers of their generation, will exchange punches again Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. They've already had three grueling bouts. This will be their fourth.
The Pacquiao vs. Marquez saga has been a good thing both for boxing fans and the box office. According to Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank Promotions, the last battle between these two diminutive giants garnered 1.3 million pay-per-view buys.
In their 2004 fight, Marquez (54-6-1, 39 knockouts) visited the canvas three times in the first round but the ever-resilient "El Dinamita" regrouped and managed a draw. Pacquiao 54-4-2, 38 knockouts) eeked out controversial split decisions in their 2008, and 2011 meetings. Marquez vehemently insists, "I won all three fights."
Marquez's resolve to beat Pacquiao verges on an obsession. Recently, the Mexican icon emphasized that getting a win over his rival is "very, very important. I have this opportunity and the victory will be mine on Dec. 8 and I will be able to retire with a victory over Manny Pacquiao."
When they met in 2004 it was at 126 pounds, but this collision will be take place at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds. At bottom, the principals in this bout are Pacquiao's uniquely concussive left hand and Marquez's counter-right. At various times, Pacquiao has come close to turning Marquez's lights out with his bullet of a left. Neverthless, Marquez has always had more success than anyone in answering Pacquiao's power shot with own punishing straight right, which he sometimes manages to chase with a left hook or uppercut.
When pressed as to how he will avoid the counter right this Saturday, Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach responds, "By being aggressive and keeping Marquez backing up." Roach continued, "When we go back and look at the tape at what worked and what didn't, it is clear that Manny did his best when he was dictating the pace and keeping busy, using his speed."
Longtime pound-for-pound stalwart, Roy Jones Jr. concurs: "Manny has to attack, get Marquez to counter and then counter his counter." But with a sharp shooter like Marquez "aggressive and busy" are easier to talk about in press conferences than to execute in the squared circle.
For all the aggression that these two talk of conjouring, both are gun-shy of boxing judges. Pacquiao and his team were appalled by a split-decision loss to Timothy Bradley in June, in which Pacquiao landed more blows and did more damage despite looking noticeably slower. Moreover, there is a perception that the Pacman got a gift in his last fight with Marquez, so Freddie Roach is plain: "Manny needs a knockout to win this one."
True to Roach's prescription, Pacquiao is bringing the heavy leather in training. Roach said, "Manny has knocked his sparring partners down three or four times already. He hasn't done that since the Cotto camp." Ray Beltran, Pacquiao's sparring mate for almost a decade, remarked, "Manny always hits hard but this time around when we are sparring, he doesn't take any breaks. There is no laying on the ropes."
Convinced that he has been thrice robbed in his bouts with Pacquiao, Marquez believes that his victory would have to be decisive. He, no less than Pacquiao, is promising an uptake in fury. "I am going to be aggressive in this fight," said Marquez. "I won't go for the knockout right away, but if I get the opportunity for the knockout I will go for one."
For much of boxing history, multiple meetings between contenders were common fare. Jake La Motta and Sugar Ray Robinson fought each other six times, enough for La Motta to crack, "I fought Sugar so often he almost gave me diabetes." Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, Joey Giardello and Dick Tiger, Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott, among others, fought four times.
Today major fights are less frequent and the promotional lead-ins much longer, so fistic trilogies and tetralogies are very rare. Nonetheless, as HBO analyst Larry Merchant observed, "Sometimes too much of a good thing is a good thing."
Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, two of the best boxers of their generation, will exchange punches again Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. They've already had three grueling bouts. This will be their fourth.
The Pacquiao vs. Marquez saga has been a good thing both for boxing fans and the box office. According to Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank Promotions, the last battle between these two diminutive giants garnered 1.3 million pay-per-view buys.
In their 2004 fight, Marquez (54-6-1, 39 knockouts) visited the canvas three times in the first round but the ever-resilient "El Dinamita" regrouped and managed a draw. Pacquiao 54-4-2, 38 knockouts) eeked out controversial split decisions in their 2008, and 2011 meetings. Marquez vehemently insists, "I won all three fights."
Marquez's resolve to beat Pacquiao verges on an obsession. Recently, the Mexican icon emphasized that getting a win over his rival is "very, very important. I have this opportunity and the victory will be mine on Dec. 8 and I will be able to retire with a victory over Manny Pacquiao."
When they met in 2004 it was at 126 pounds, but this collision will be take place at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds. At bottom, the principals in this bout are Pacquiao's uniquely concussive left hand and Marquez's counter-right. At various times, Pacquiao has come close to turning Marquez's lights out with his bullet of a left. Neverthless, Marquez has always had more success than anyone in answering Pacquiao's power shot with own punishing straight right, which he sometimes manages to chase with a left hook or uppercut.
When pressed as to how he will avoid the counter right this Saturday, Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach responds, "By being aggressive and keeping Marquez backing up." Roach continued, "When we go back and look at the tape at what worked and what didn't, it is clear that Manny did his best when he was dictating the pace and keeping busy, using his speed."
Longtime pound-for-pound stalwart, Roy Jones Jr. concurs: "Manny has to attack, get Marquez to counter and then counter his counter." But with a sharp shooter like Marquez "aggressive and busy" are easier to talk about in press conferences than to execute in the squared circle.
For all the aggression that these two talk of conjouring, both are gun-shy of boxing judges. Pacquiao and his team were appalled by a split-decision loss to Timothy Bradley in June, in which Pacquiao landed more blows and did more damage despite looking noticeably slower. Moreover, there is a perception that the Pacman got a gift in his last fight with Marquez, so Freddie Roach is plain: "Manny needs a knockout to win this one."
True to Roach's prescription, Pacquiao is bringing the heavy leather in training. Roach said, "Manny has knocked his sparring partners down three or four times already. He hasn't done that since the Cotto camp." Ray Beltran, Pacquiao's sparring mate for almost a decade, remarked, "Manny always hits hard but this time around when we are sparring, he doesn't take any breaks. There is no laying on the ropes."
Convinced that he has been thrice robbed in his bouts with Pacquiao, Marquez believes that his victory would have to be decisive. He, no less than Pacquiao, is promising an uptake in fury. "I am going to be aggressive in this fight," said Marquez. "I won't go for the knockout right away, but if I get the opportunity for the knockout I will go for one."
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
ESPN: What if Pacquiao had KO'd Marquez?
How might the fighters' storied rivalry, and their careers, have been different?
By Kieran Mulvaney | ESPN.com
LAS VEGAS -- If Saturday night's main event at the MGM Grand lasts the distance, Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez will have swapped punches for 48 rounds. And if the final 12 are anything like the first 36, they are likely to be closely fought and to culminate in a close and controversial decision.
It has been the defining rivalry of both men's careers, and yet, by the end of the first round of their first contest in May 2004, it seemed unlikely that it would last another three minutes, let alone extend into three more fights. Pacquiao, fresh off overwhelming Marco Antonio Barrera, tore into Marquez, dropping him three times in the opening frame and leaving at least one observer convinced that the evening's work was done.
"After the first knockdown I thought it was over, after the second one I thought it was over, and after the third one I definitely thought it was over," said Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach. "It didn't come true of course. Marquez showed he was very resilient. He's a very tough guy. He got up from three knockdowns, and the third one was a hard shot."
Importantly, however, the third man in the ring wasn't ready to go home just yet.
"I was looking at [Marquez] close," said Joe Cortez, who was the referee that night. "He was begging me, 'Please don't stop it,' and of course I took that into consideration and I let it continue. Given that it was two flash knockdowns and his eyes looked pretty good to me, I let it go."
But what if Cortez had stopped it? Or what if there had been a three-knockdown rule that mandated he do so? What would have happened then? How might the career paths of both boxers have been different?
For Pacquiao, it's possible that little would have changed. Perhaps he might have defended the 126-pound title he would have taken from Marquez before going on to do what he did anyway -- stepping up to 130 pounds to take on Erik Morales.
The loss in that bout with Morales forced Roach to double down on turning the southpaw Pacquiao into less of a left-hand-happy brawler -- it's stunning to watch the first Marquez fight anew and see how unvaried the Filipino's arsenal was, especially in comparison to his later peak years -- and into a more complete fighter. That led to Pacquiao defeating Morales in a rematch and crushing him in their third contest, and created a springboard from which he launched himself through multiple weight divisions, annihilating Hall of Fame-caliber opponents along the way.
All of that probably would have been as likely to happen if his fight with Marquez had been called after three knockdowns.
The big question is how different things might have been for Marquez. After all, even after his comeback and the disputed draw in the first Pacquiao bout, almost another four years passed before the fighters met again.
"He complains a lot about why we waited so long for the second fight," Roach said, "but he's the one who turned down $750,000 and chose to go to Indonesia and get beat."
After the Pacquiao fight, Marquez made two defenses of his featherweight title, one at the MGM and one at the Mandalay Bay. Needless to say, had he lost that title in a one-round blowout, he probably wouldn't have been making back-to-back appearances on Las Vegas Boulevard in his subsequent outings.
Would he have worked his way back into contention? Would he still have traveled to Indonesia to face Chris John, as he did in March 2006? If so, and if he had lost a points decision in that alternate universe much the same way he did in this reality, what then? It's hard to imagine that a fighter as talented as Marquez wouldn't have resurfaced at some point, but with a one-round stoppage to Pacquiao and a defeat to John in close proximity, would he have been given the same opportunities to defeat Barrera or win epic battles against Joel Casamayor, Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis? Would the call ever have arrived to face Floyd Mayweather Jr.?
And how much demand would there have been to face Pacquiao again?
"If we didn't have an experienced referee in the first fight," Roach said, "there would have never been a second fight."
But there was an experienced referee on hand, and there was no three-knockdown rule. And so Marquez survived the first round, and the second. Then he turned the tide and completed the first episode of a saga that will reach its fourth, and presumably ultimate, installment Saturday.
"Little did I know that it would turn out to be a helluva fight and I made the right move," said Cortez of his decision to allow the first fight to continue. "It was probably one of the best moves I made in my career."
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