Tuesday, March 25, 2008 Pacquiao: Diaz first before Marquez
NEWLY-crowned World Boxing Council super featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao would rather take on lightweight champion David Diaz first before entertaining a third fight with bitter rival Juan Manuel Marquez.
“If I fight Marquez again, it might get personal. It seems we have a grudge,” Pacquiao said in a report posted at GMA.tv.
Pacquiao, who dethroned Marquez via split decision last March 16, arrived to a hero’s welcome in Manila last Sunday.
Philippine cabinet officials joined Pacquiao’s wife and three children in welcoming the 29-year-old slugger, a week after a bruising 12 rounder with Marquez whom he beat by split decision to grab the title in Las Vegas.
The March 16 fight was a rematch of a 2004 draw in which Pacquiao knocked Marquez to the canvas three times in the first round.
Now, Marquez’s camp claims errors in judging and says a second rematch in the 130-pound division would settle the matter once and for all.
Pacquiao, who took home a purse of at least five million dollars from the fight, said Monday he was looking at going up to the lightweight division to face Diaz and become the first Asian to hold titles in four different divisions.
But he says that can wait and he would oblige Marquez “anytime, if the price is right.”
Golden Boy Promotions dangled $6 million for a third fight with Marquez.
“I’m just a boxer. My job is to look for fights,” Pacquiao said. “I must admit, that was one of the hardest fights of my life.”
He said Marquez, as expected, would press for a second rematch, but stressed he won the fight “convincingly” with a third-round left hook that decked Marquez.
Pacquiao, a celebrity in the Philippines, is considered the best pound-for-pound fighter at present in professional boxing and the first Asian to win three world titles in three different world divisions.
He is often compared to Gabriel “Flash” Elorde, a Filipino cultural icon who was the longest reigning lightweight champion who held the WBC and WBA belts for seven years in the 1960s. (ML with AFP)
