“It’s on like Voltron!!!”
If the Pacquiao-Marquez 4 press conference in Mexico is any indication, where 10,000 people waited hours just to see and hear both fighters announce their fight at the Mexico City Arena in Mexico City, it’s clear that this fight means more to Mexican boxing legend Juan Manuel Marquez and his millions of fans, than it does Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao and his millions of fans.
While many Filipino boxing fans are transfixed on their idol fighting Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and complaining about how they do not wish to see a fourth fight with Marquez, the excitement of Mexican boxing fans at the arena was heard loud and clear. There isn’t a form of motivation quite like revenge, and the Mexican boxing fateful, who have had their hearts broken so many times before by this Filipino boxing juggernaut, have waited so long to extract theirs. No “Juan” embodies that sentiment as much as Marquez.
Video: Juan Manuel Marquez speaks in front of his fans in Mexico City to promote 4th fight with Pacquiao
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To put it in a different perspective, it’s a “Buy 1, Get 4” deal for Marquez, meaning a decisive win over Pacquiao in December cements his claims of besting the Filipino in their first 3 fights (operative word: “decisive”). Believe me, there won’t be a fifth fight between these two, and as the saying goes, “he who laughs last, laughs best.”
So before people get carried away (again) with talks of Pacquiao facing Mayweather next year, even as Pacquiao himself has been fielding a lot of questions about it, Pacquiao’s Dec. 8th bout with Marquez will be the most important fight of his career to date, as well as the most dangerous. Marquez knows Pacquiao like the back of his hand and the taste of his own urine, and will be focused like never before as his career and legacy winds down to one fight. This is Marquez’s “superfight”; what beating Mayweather and winning the next Philippine elections means to Pacquiao, rolled into one.
Pacquiao said he will bring back the same hunger he had in his mid-20’s when he drew with Marquez in their first fight. Good. But if the battle were about hunger, Pacquiao can’t possibly “out-starve” Marquez, who hasn’t been eating well with the bitter taste of not beating Pacquiao still lingering in his mouth ever since that first bout.
