No matter how the handlers and hangers-on of the newly crowned World Boxing Council super featherweight champion try to spin it, the fact is that Juan Manuel Marquez has unfinished business, and his name is Manny Pacquiao.
Marquez is now engaged in an elaborate charade aimed at ducking Pacquiao. His defenders cite Manny’s alleged problems with Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. Ex-Manager Shelley Finkel sarcastically refers to the “great advice” Manny is receiving from his current handlers, and sheds crocodile tears that the Filipino is “out of the loop” at this time.
The fact remains that until Marquez and Pacquiao meet in a match to decide once and for all the issue of who deserves to be champ, Marquez will always be considered an officious caretaker of the WBC belt.
Once again, business reasons are trumping the indubitable interest of the sport. The rankings of boxers are meant to be an important gauge of the ability of a fighter, not the business acumen of his managers.
Handlers of Marquez and the dethroned Marco Antonio Barrera are now salivating over the piles of greenbacks they think they will make in a rematch. If Barrera gets back his title in such a return engagement, a rubber match is all but certain. That means Manny may have to cool his heels indefinitely.
Perhaps the calculation of Marquez’s equally scared advisers is that, in time, Manny will have passed his prime, or will become so enamored of politics and quit boxing altogether, or be defeated by a unknown journeyman and thus be relegated to that long list of wannabes who perennially wait in vain for a championship match.
But until we see Marquez in the ring again with Pacquiao, doubts will continue to hound the new supposed champ. It must stick in his craw that Manny gets the accolades, or is called the best boxer in his class pound for pound.
In short, Marquez can run but he can’t hide forever. He ought to be reminded that, in the cruel world of high-stakes boxing, ducks, no matter how loudly they quack, eventually turn into chickens.
