Thursday, April 29, 2004 | 9:02 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
As much as a victory against Marco Antonio Barrera meant to Manny Pacquaio, his trainer believes it will have lost its luster if the featherweight contender fails to follow it up with a win of even greater significance.
Pacquaio gets that chance May 8 at the MGM when he faces two-belt world champion Juan Manuel Marquez.
"Without a win in this fight, nothing else matters," trainer Freddie Roach said from his Wildcat Gym in Los Angeles, where Pacquaio has been fine tuning for the title fight. "Anything that might be next for Manny is entirely contingent on beating Marquez."
Pacquaio, a native of the Philippines, has said he will send Marquez back to Mexico without his World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation championships at 126 pounds.
"He's got nothing but Marquez on his mind," Roach said. "Without a doubt, he has trained harder for this fight than he did for Barrera."
When Pacquaio fought Barrera Nov. 15 in San Antonio, the outcome was neither foreseen nor, some would say, easily believed. Moving up from super bantamweight, Pacquaio was relentless in defeating the established featherweight kingpin, dropping him in the third and 11th rounds before Barrera's corner stepped in and surrendered at 2:56 of the 11th.
Pacquaio landed 257 power shots that night, while Barrera connected for only 101.
A southpaw and former world champion at both 112 and 122 pounds, Pacquaio showed himself to be a potentially great fighter in defeating Barrera. But to make the point stick he has to come right back and beat Marquez, who is 42-2 and coming off a victory against Derrick Gainer.
Pacquaio, 38-2-1, is a 7-5 betting favorite at the MGM.
"Marquez is a better fighter than Barrera," Roach said. "He's a great counterpuncher and has a much different style than Barrera.
"I know we're in for a tough fight. I had dinner with 10 writers (last week in Los Angeles) and all 10 took Marquez to win."
Pacquaio, 25, has put in six weeks at the Wildcat Gym and will conclude his sparring sessions Saturday. Super bantamweight contender Art Simonyan has been among his sparring partners.
Pacquaio is due to arrive in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
"He's very confident, but more important than confidence, he's going to be ready," Roach said. "Marquez is a strong kid and we've done everything we can to prepare for him."
Promoted by Murad Muhammad, Pacquaio will be fighting in Las Vegas for only the second time, having stopped Benedict Ledwaba in six rounds three years ago.
"After so many people doubted his abilities, Manny is on the brink of greatness," Muhammad said of his budding star.
"It's absolutely under our purview," NSAC executive director Marc Ratner said of the shows being developed by Fox and NBC. "It concerns me because we don't want a Toughman show. It can't be anything like Toughman."
Toughman is the trademark name used by promoter Art Dore to showcase fights -- usually lacking suitable medical personnel or background checks -- between guys just off the streets; it is not licensed in Nevada. To alleviate the concern that Fox and NBC might do the same, Ratner is proposing that any participants in the shows be licensed by the state.
"We'll want the fighters to have turned pro and be licensed by us," he said. "I want to be able to go to a gym and see them work out."
The show being developed by Fox has a casting call set for May 7 in Las Vegas and is working toward having its program on the air this fall. The NBC show is not expected to be ready to air until 2005.
The general idea is to match unskilled fighters in bouts and follow the progress (in and out of the ring) of at least the better ones of the lot.
"The positive thing for me is that this could give boxing some mainstream publicity," Ratner said. "It could help boxing."
Last Saturday's main event at the Reno Hilton between welterweights Jose Luis Cruz Felix and Lino Perez was scored a majority draw. ... Local heavyweight Duncan Dokiwari steps in for Serguei Lyakhovich and will face Calvin Brock in the main event of a May 15 card in Chicago to be televised by NBC. ... Local cruiserweight Kelvin Davis gets a crack at the vacant IBF title when he takes on Ezra Sellers Saturday in Miami. Davis is 20-2-1 and Sellers is 27-5. ... Bernard Hopkins has moved his training camp to Vero Beach, Fla., in preparation for his June 5 fight against Robert Allen at the MGM. "I've got five weeks to go," he said before leaving his home in Philadelphia. "As I'm already 70 percent ready and don't have to focus on losing weight, I'll use the time to prepare my game plan for the fight and begin to mentally focus on Allen. You don't want to go into a fight thinking that you already beat this guy and you th! ink it is going to be easy again. Success is based on merit."
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