“I will put my money on the first, second and third rounds. He won’t last longer than that…Marquez will be too slow as a welterweight”…”it seems to me that he’s having second thoughts about fighting”…all recent comments made by some of the biggest names in the sport. Looking back at this week’s key quotes of note, Boxing Scribe Vivek Wallace offers his own unique perspective, giving fight fans “a little something to think about”. Check it out!
“I will put my money on the first, second and third rounds. He won’t last longer than that. That’s as far as I would go. How many times did Pacquiao floor Marquez? Manny maintained both his speed and power at a higher weight, and I can’t imagine how Marquez will handle that. Marquez will be too slow as a welterweight and it will take a lot off his power.” – Former world champion Gerry Penelosa on Pacquiao-Marquez 3
Perspective: Penelosa’s logic is awfully close to that of most fight fans, but somewhere beneath that veil of perceived reality looms a grave question: What if they’re all wrong? As Penelosa pointed out, conventional wisdom tells us that Pacquiao knocked Marquez down several times in the past with relative ease and has carried that speed and power up to a higher weight, so the bigger version of Pacquiao should find it much easier to multiply those results. Well…..again……what will it tell us if it doesn’t happen? On the surface, it may fall back to the typical “styles-make-fights” garb, but the hidden reality could point to two other angles that hold far more weight…..perhaps too much weight for fight fans on both sides of the aisle to support in the end.
One: It would inevitably introduce a new alibi in the whole blood-based testing debate, which would allow room for the desperate to blame Mayweather for the mega-fight not happening, as the average fan would immediately say a not-so-easy rubbermatch “proves Pacquiao is not anything extraordinary; he was simply the better man against other recent opponents, yet met his match against a smaller Marquez.”
Two: More than anything, it would open the door to a possibility that I’ve long spoke of, going back a few fights now. That possibility is that the ordinary to extraordinary Manny Pacquiao is slowly starting to show the effects of a man who has faced nearly 60 opponents, most which were all out wars, and most which took major chunks out of his mettle.
Both theories provide much to chew on for the average fight fan, and both could potentially last longer than the man which they surround. Hopefully for Pacquiao’s sake, Penelosa is right, or close, because any result too long and drawn out that night could be met with very contrasting views, few which benefit Pacquiao himself.
At the end of the day, what appears to be clear and concise could turn out to be anything but on the night of November 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. For the intellectually impaired out there, let this piece serve as a headstart to either produce a sound alibi or support the logic behind one of the two I just dropped. Let the debates officially begin. If Manny Pacquiao does in fact struggle against Marquez, what will that tell us? Just a little something to think about.
