Friday, April 11, 2008 Pacquiao: Marquez won’t have to wait long for rematch
AFTER having waited for four years for a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao won’t let his nemesis that long.
The World Boxing Council super featherweight champion said in his column at philboxing.com that he has no problem with a second rematch and that he won’t let the Mexican wait—unlike what Marquez did to him—if a third encounter is what the boxing fans want.
After their first fight ended in a controversial draw in 2004, Pacquiao’s camp asked for an immediate rematch but various disagreements, including as to which fighter should get the bigger purse, got in the way., resulting to a four-year gap between the two fights.
In the recent “Invasion” card, where all the Filipino fighters swept the foreign invaders with knockout victories, Marquez not only went to watch the boxing show put up by his promoter Golden Boy Promotions with ALA Promotions with ABS-CBN, he also came here to challenge Pacquiao for a second rematch.
Marquez even boldly told Pacquiao, during an interview, that “he (Pacquiao) knows he lost,” earning a wry smile from the Filipino.
In their rematch Pacquiao dethroned Marquez in a split decision and even floored the former champ in the third round.
Despite that one-point loss, Marquez has repeatedly said he deserved to win the match.
However, for Pacquiao promoter and Top Rank Promotions president, Bob Arum, a third fight with Marquez isn’t in the picture.
Arum has already planned out Pacquiao’s future in the lightweight division and has come up with a list of possible prospects should Pacquiao beat WBC light weight titleholder David Diaz on June 28.
“Assuming Manny is successful, and he wants to stay at lightweight, then we’d look to Nate Campbell, Joel Casamayor or Amir Khan,” Arum told thesweetscience.com.
Campbell (32-5-1, 25 KOs), 36, holds three belts in the lightweight category, the IBF, WBO and WBC after he defeated Juan Diaz in a split decision last March 8, while Casmayor (36-3-1, 22 KOs), 36, is the interim WBO lightweight champion after a TKO victory over Australian slugger Michael Katsidis in their March 22 battle.
Kahn (17-0, 13 KOs), 21, England’s rising star, is the WBO Intercontinental lightweight king and a 2004 Olympic silver medalist. (EKA)
