Pacquiao vs Mosley

FREE Pacquiao VS Mosley live stream
here at http://www.adsnatin.com.ph/forum/

Pacquiao vs Marquez

Pacquiao-Marquez III is long overdue

Without meaning to look past Manny Pacquiao's showdown with Sugar Shane Mosley this weekend, let me just say that news of a potential third fight between Pacman and Juan Manuel Marquez tentatively scheduled for later this year actually got me more excited than the Mosley fight.

Mosley just isn't the best opponent out there for Pacquiao. He's over the hill and hardly looked impressive in his last outing, a lackluster draw against Sergio Mora. The main reason his name suddenly cropped up in discussions about Pacquiao's next opponent is because he left Golden Boy Promotions and declared himself a free agent.
Marquez is also promoted by Golden Boy, of course, but if he wasn't, he probably would have secured this third fight a long time ago. Giving a shot to a has-been like Mosley, ahead of the one fighter who has truly given Pacquiao a hard time in recent years is just one of the sad consequences of the rivalry between GBP and Top Rank, which promotes Pacquiao.
If it happens (i.e., if GBP agrees to it), a Marquez fight should be more exciting than any of Pacquiao's last six fights, all of which were not particularly close. Pacquiao-Marquez II, which ended in a very close split decision for Pacquiao, was the last Pacquiao fight that really had me at the edge of my seat and unsure about the outcome. Marquez counterpunched beautifully in the last six rounds and kept Pacquiao from unleashing his vaunted rapid-fire punches. I remember watching the bout in a movie house, and when the final bell rang, there was an uneasy silence in the audience. Many of us were convinced Marquez had done enough to win. If I recall, even the local commentators had scored the bout in favor of Marquez by one point.
Pacquiao, of course, was eventually declared winner by the slimmest of margins, and in the end, his third-round knockdown of Marquez proved to be difference in the scorecards of two of the judges. That controversial ending should have easily justified a trilogy, since even their first fight produced an inconclusive result, but boxing being what it is, and despite Marquez's valid protestations, it just never materialized.
Now, I'm just as big a Pacquiao fan as the next guy, and it's nice to watch him win all the time, but after seeing him send guys into retirement (Ricky Hatton and Oscar Dela Hoya) and rearrange the faces of others (Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito), there comes a point when you want to see an opponent actually challenge him. And no fighter has given him a stiffer challenge in the past three years than Marquez. Really, he's like the anti-Pacquiao, his counterpunching style the perfect antidote to Pacquiao's swarming offense. Sure, Manny has sent him to the canvas four times already, but it's just as remarkable that Marquez actually recovered from those knockdowns and nearly went on to win both fights.
The main concern raised by some about this third fight is that it should have been done two years ago, when the weight disparity between the two fighters wasn't as big as it is today. That second fight was done at 130 pounds, or junior lightweight. Pacquiao now fights as a welterweight (147), whereas Marquez is a lightweight (135). The Mexican ventured into a higher weight class just once, to disastrous results, a lopsided unanimous decision loss to Floyd Mayweather. In that bout, Marquez fought at 142 pounds, his heaviest ever but still four pounds lighter than Mayweather. In his last fight, an impressive ninth-round TKO of Michael Katsidis, he was back to 135 pounds.
In contrast, Pacquiao has weighed in the 144-145 range in his last three fights. Freddie Roach has said his ward will now fight exclusively at 147 pounds, leaving Marquez no choice but to move up in weight again.
There's also the matter of Marquez's age. He'll be 38 by the time he fights Pacquiao again, and he just might not be as sharp as he was in 2008. Roach said last year that if Pacquiao and Marquez were to meet again, Pacquiao would win easily because he has improved by leaps and bounds since the second fight. It's clear Manny is much better now than he was three years ago, but given Marquez's advanced age, a Pacquiao win could be dismissed by critics with an "oh, you just had to wait until he was 38 before you fought him again" argument.
Then again, with Marquez you'll never know. Everyone thought he was through as a fighter after Mayweather beat the living crap out of him, but he bounced back with two big wins over Juan Diaz and Katsidis. First things first, though. Pacquiao needs to get past Mosley and both camps have to finalize the fight contract before this trilogy can become a reality. And when it does, I have a feeling Marquez won't go quietly.