Underdog Boxing: At least we know Marquez will fight

Golden Boy Promotions will not match Top Rank's offer to Juan Manuel Marquez. The offer, already signed by the future hall-of-famer, had a guaranteed purse of $5 million with a share of the pay-per-view buys. They were thinking of matching up Marquez against Saul Alvarez but the catchweight offered by Top Rank made it impossible. The world is one step closer to seeing Marquez and Manny Pacquiao complete their trilogy on November 12, most likely in Las Vegas. The archrivals, who have fought at the featherweight and super featherweight divisions, will now fight at the welterweight division at a catchweight of 144 pounds. If Pacquiao signs the contract, then there’s no stopping the fight from happening. Marquez is by no means in the prime of his career but this match works for me because of two simple reasons. The first is that the two guys have history. Even if Marquez is not as well-known in the States as Shane Mosley, a lot of people remember his classic fights against Pacquiao. The second reason is that Marquez will fight back. It won’t matter if he has to pick himself up from three more knockdowns at the hands of Pacquiao, Marquez will get up and throw some back until he can’t anymore. “If Manny and Marquez fought ten times then all of those fights will be close. He really knows how to fight Manny," Freddie Roach told me. Marquez and his trainer Nacho Beristain have spent countless hours deciphering Pacquiao’s game. He knows that if he throws a lazy jab, Pacquiao will counter it with a right hook over the top. He knows when Pacquiao will feint and when he’ll throw a lead left. Marquez did look bad against Floyd Mayweather which was also in the welterweight division but I don’t think the same will happen against Pacquiao. In that fight, Marquez had to force the action. He had to chase Mayweather around the ring. We all know that’s not his style so he looked lost most of the time. Against Pacquiao, Marquez can be his usual counter-punching self. The weight is not much of a problem because Pacquiao himself needs to eat a lot to weigh in at 145. Marquez will take a tune-up fight against former champion David Diaz in July. This could be dangerous as he will lose his shot at Pacquiao if he loses against the tough Diaz. But he knows that fighting Pacquiao coming off a one-year layoff is suicidal. Pacquiao-Marquez is one of the best rivalries of our time. We should all welcome the fact that we’ll get to see a definitive ending to the storied rivalry. Pacquiao will always have detractors until he defeats Marquez. A win will exorcise all the ghosts of the first two fights. Marquez needs to beat Pacquiao to be considered the best Mexican fighter of his generation. The only bad thing about this fight is that we’ll have to wait six months before we see it. -- GMA News