SAN ANTONIO, Texas — There’s no other mouth-watering matchup to see than a rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, a ranking official from Top Rank said on Sunday.
Publicist Ricardo Jimenez told Manila scribes that the fight everyone wants to see is Pacquiao colliding for the second time with the crafty Marquez, who currently reigns as the World Boxing Council super-featherweight titlist.
“That’s the fight we would all want to see,” said Jimenez, some five hours after watching Pacquiao leave unbeaten Jorge Solis of Guadalajara in a mess at the Alamodome.
Even Pacquiao is inclined to see the fight materialize in an interview with ringside reporters following his eighth-round destruction of Solis.
But the legal problem involving Pacquiao and his promotional partner Top Rank and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions may hamper the progress of the negotiations. Arum and De La Hoya are slugging it out for the rights to promote the murderous-hitting Filipino lefty.
Marquez became the most attractive fighter recently after he dethroned Marco Antonio Barrera last month. He and Pacquiao had fought to a bloody 12-round split draw in May 2004.
Before the fight, Barrera was the more ideal foe for Pacquiao since he had been commenting that the reaosn why Pacquiao stopped him in the 11th round in Nov. 2003–at the Alamodome–was because he was not mentally prepared owing to several distractions.
Aside from Marquez, other names being floated right now are those of Joan Guzman from the Dominican Republic and Humberto Soto of Mexico.
