Playing hard ball sometimes produces negative effects. It does for IBF/WBA featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez.
For ?overpricing? himself, the Mexican dual champion finds himself facing a blank wall with no big-time opponent for the time being as Filipino ring star Manny Pacquiao jumped out of their scheduled February 26 rematch.
Instead, the Ring Magazine featherweight titlist Pacquiao will move up to the 130 pounds division and challenge another Mexican hotshot Erik ?El Terible? Morales in a 12-round megafight billed as ?Bring It On? on March 19 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The blockbuster HBO Pay-Per-View showdown will be promoted by Top Rank headed by its president Bob Arum in connivance with American promoter Murad Muhammad of the New Jersey-based M & M Sports.
A news conference will be held on Wednesday (Thursday RP time) at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Las Vegas to officially announce the dream match-up that will surely make it to the list of boxing?s box-office hits of all time.
Pacquiao was originally booked to fight Marquez, but the hotly-anticipated return bout collapsed because the Mexican warrior demands more money than the General Santos City-native punisher.
Marquez was offered $700,000, but wanted $1.5 million for the deal to be sealed. Muhammad went to Las Vegas last week, trying to salvage the bout but his efforts went futile.
It was then that the Morales-Pacquiao clash shaped up and became official sooner than expected.
Boxing pundits believe that the Morales-Pacquiao match is going to be another classic street-brawl, a war for the ages as both fighters possess devastating punching power and technical fighting skills.
Pacquiao, who boasts of a lethal left straight, is known for his power, speed and quickness, but the Filipino boxing icon needs to ponder on some vital points that could be his stumbling block in conquering the Mexican hero.
Foremost, Pacquiao will fight for only the first time at the junior lightweight division, while Morales has fought three times under this weight category. Morales is taller and bigger than Pacquiao and has not lost except to Marco Antonio Barrera.
Pacquiao, however, has something to be confident about because he mercilessly destroyed Barrera, the man who is credited for inflicting Morales?s only two career defeats.
On November 16, 2003 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, Pacquiao brutally dismantled Barrera into 11th round submission. That marked the start of Pacquiao?s phenomenal rise into boxing stardom.
Pacquiao is currently in Los Angeles to start his torrid training regimen for the Morales fight under the watchful eyes of the celebrated American strategist Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.
Should Pacquiao (39-2-2-31KOs) win over Morales (47-2-34KOs), the Filipino destroyer will definitely have a rematch with Barrera.
