Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Looking ahead isn’t part of these fighters’ plans

It's impossible to look past or dismiss a two-belt world champion, yet Juan Manuel Marquez can be forgiven if he feels slighted even as his fight with Manny Pacquiao is at hand.

Marquez and Pacquiao fight Saturday at the MGM but throughout Thursday's final prefight press conference there was an overwhelming tendency to jump ahead. Even the co-promoters for the fight, Bob Arum and Murad Muhammad, have their future plans pertaining to Marquez and Pacquiao in order.

If Pacquiao, who is a minus 170 betting favorite at the host site, wins and comes through relatively unscathed, he will fight World Boxing Council junior lightweight champion Erik Morales on July 31.

But should Marquez, a plus 150 underdog and the holder of the World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation featherweight titles, win, he will face IBF junior lightweight world champ Carlos Hernandez on that same July 31 date.

Yet a good deal of the conversation was about Pacquiao vs. Morales, rather than Pacquiao vs. Marquez or Marquez vs. Hernandez.

"They can say what they want, it doesn't bother me," Marquez said through an interpreter. "If he's thinking about fighting Morales, it's all the better for me."

But Pacquiao, for one, says he isn't looking ahead.

"I don't want to talk about Erik Morales right now," said the slugger from the Philippines in halfway decent English. "I'm very confident and this fight comes first."

Pacquiao, 25, is 38-2-1 with 29 knockouts and is a former world champion at 112 and 122 pounds. He's also coming off an eye-popping victory in his featherweight debut against Marco Antonio Barrera.

Marquez, 30, is 42-2 with 33 KOs and is looking to avenge Barrera's loss to Pacquiao for his Mexican countrymen.

Both Pacquiao and Marquez are receiving a half-million dollars for the bout.

Pacquiao's trainer, the highly regarded Freddie Roach, says Marquez is tougher than Morales and that this is the more difficult of the matches.

"Sure, everyone else is talking about (Pacquiao vs.) Morales, but I think Marquez is much tougher," he said. "We trained hard, real hard, and I made sure Manny didn't get caught up in the hype of fighting Morales until we win this one."

Yet Pacquiao had only to listen to his own promoter, Muhammad, to potentially fall victim to the trap of looking ahead.

"Thanks to my ingenuity and ability, I've got a signed deal for Manny to fight Morales after he beats Marquez," he said. "I'm like a pool shark, always playing for position. I've got my boxer in position for an even bigger fight than this one."

Arum agrees.

"If Pacquiao wins and isn't hurt, he'll fight Morales July 31," he said. "If Marquez wins, he'll fight Carlos Hernandez July 31 and maybe fight Morales sometime in the future."

Told he's in something of a "can't lose" situation in that he promotes Morales as well, Arum smiled and nodded.

He did say that some 6,000 tickets had been sold for Saturday's HBO card in the Grand Garden Arena and that a crowd approaching the scaled-back capacity of 9,300 is expected.

A victory by Pacquiao would add to his celebrity and make him, perhaps, the hottest fighter in the sport.

"I've got the people's champion but we want those (WBA and IBF) belts that Marquez has," Muhammad said. "Without those belts, this fight wouldn't have happened."

Pacquiao, who said the secrets of his success are "training, praying and sacrificing," also said he's good at handling Mexican fighters such as Barrera, Marquez and Morales because "I started in boxing with a Mexican style."

In other words, he's as relentless, fearless and determined as the great Mexican champions.

"I think he knows what he's in for," Marquez said. "They feel I'm a better boxer than Erik Morales and that's nice to hear.

"But I have to say that's not going to help me much Saturday night.""

archive