If you’ve ever been to a Chinese restaurant – and I’m sure most of you have – when you look on the menu you see a variety of cuisine to choose from: Orange chicken, sweet and sour pork, broccoli and beef, and a variety of combination platters that come with shrimp fried rice. But at the bottom of the menu it reads, ‘no substitutions please.’
Hey, this isn’t Burger King; you can’t have it your way.
Well, in that vain, I’m making my order – I want Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez II on March 15th. And I’m telling everyone involved: Top Rank, Golden Boy Promotions, Freddie Roach, Nacho Beristain and Jaime Quintana – no substitutions please.
It’s the only fight to make at 130 pounds. And before ‘The Pac Man’ makes his foray into the lightweight division, where he’ll soon face the likes of Juan Diaz and the like, it says here he has unfinished business at junior lightweight. While the Filipino icon is the consensus choice as the worlds top junior lightweight, he’s actually never won a major world title in this weight class. And Marquez, who is universally hailed as no worse than the second best in this division, has in his possession the coveted WBC strap.
Pacquiao and Marquez are listed in every pound-for-pound listing you see. And they had a barnburner back in April of 2004 when Pacquiao would blitz Marquez in the first round of their initial encounter and send him shockingly to the canvas three times, only to have the classy Marquez grit his teeth and box his way back to a hard-earned draw. This bout is just begging for round 13 to begin.
Yeah, yeah, I know, Beristain would then make a series of head-scratching managerial moves that not only saw him turn down a rematch (for around $750,000) with Pacquiao, but their relationship with Top Rank would turn so toxic that after being stripped of both their belts (where their own promoter wouldn’t participate in purse bids), Marquez was stuck in the jungles of Indonesia fighting for around $30,000 against Chris John, where they were promptly jobbed.
But since that point he has regained his stature with a string of victories, including a win over Marco Antonio Barrera in March that stamped his arrival as a known commodity.
You just know if they are offered the return bout, they won?t make the same mistake twice.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao, since his dead-heat with Marquez, has ascended into superstardom, becoming a big name in not just his home country of the Philippines, but to followers of the game worldwide. Recently though, he’s been on a bit of a Mexican retirement tour, facing Erik Morales (after stopping him in their rematch), a blown-up Oscar Larios, taking on the over-matched Jorge Solis and Barrera (after he had just lost to Marquez).
It’s time to get back to the big leagues. His recent strength of schedule leaves something to be desired.
Bob Arum would meet with Pacquiao and his trainer this past weekend in Los Angeles, while he was filming a Nike commercial at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood. It was widely reported that Arum’s preference was for Pacquiao to face WBC lightweight champion David Diaz, with one of the main reasons being that Diaz is promoted by Top Rank, and the settlement that Top Rank and Golden Boy reached over the summer in regards to Pacquiao’s services called for Golden Boy to have a bigger piece of the promotional pie if the opponent Pacquiao faced was handled by Golden Boy. Arum, naturally, would want to keep things in-house on both ends. But bouts with Marquez and Joan Guzman would involve GBP having a bigger role in the promotion.
You get the sense that the Top Rank-Golden Boy union is much like the one between Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston or Hitler and Stalin, done out of convenience and very shaky and volatile. But one source close to the situation says that Arum is basically leaving the decision on whether to face Diaz or Marquez up to the fighter and will lay out the financial figures to him in the near future. Roach is said to be favoring Marquez, not only wanting his boxer to win a title at 130, but believing that Diaz brings a different set of problems to the table, namely being his natural size advantage and his southpaw stance.
Pacquiao is already back home, thinking things over. But there’s no doubt that Marquez wants the rematch.
“Yes, of course, we’ve been waiting for that rematch since 2004. It hasn’t happened and now that it’s pretty close to happening, Manny Pacquiao is putting out a lot of excuses along with Bob Arum,” said Quintana, the adviser to Marquez and Beristain, on Wednesday afternoon. “They said Juan Manuel is demanding a lot of money, which is not true. Whatever they put on the table, Manny, the purse is acceptable to Juan Manuel Marquez.
“The weight, they wanted to make it acertain weight, 132, we said, ‘No problem. Let’s make it 132. Let’s make it happen.’ But I think Manny is putting out a lot of excuses right now and Juan Manuel is getting tired of it.”
Quintana has been in constant contact with his fighter while in Los Angeles, helping prepare Eduardo Escobedo for his December 8th bout against Daniel Ponce de Leon.
“I just spoke to him right now and he told me, ‘Maybe he’s afraid. He’s afraid to accept the rematch and that’s it. ‘I’m afraid to fight you because I’m scared to lose against you”. We can move on. Juan Manuel Marquez has many fights ahead of him. But the public wants to see Juan Manuel Marquez-Manny Pacquiao. So let?s make it happen.”
No substitutions please.
Anything else would just make us hungry an hour later.
FEROZ FAREWELL
The farewell fight for Fernando Vargas was much like a microcosm of his whole career. In his biggest bouts, with big audiences watching, he would be game and competitive, but ultimately end up on the short end of the stick.
But it was a very respectable end to his career. No, he didn’t leave the sport with a victory like he wished, but he and Ricardo Mayorga put on a pretty good show. It wasn’t necessarily what I’d call world-class action, as Mayorga was as crude as ever, and it’s been evident for a long time just how far backward Vargas has gone physically throughout the years, but as they exchanged punches (especially in the early rounds) the crowd was on it’s feet often and enjoying the action.
And just as Vargas seemed to be creeping back into the fight on the scorecards, a right hand would knock him down in the 11th frame to seal the fight for Mayorga. Like his bouts with Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya, while his heart kept him in fights, his chin would ultimately let him down.
But this time, he would see the last bell and finish on his feet. The crowd of over 10,000 at the Staples Center seemed very satisfied with what they had witnessed. Both combatants had promised a brawl and for the most part they tried their best to deliver.
It wasn’t the ending Vargas wanted for his colorful career (which only spanned 31 fights) but one he need not be ashamed off. The legacy he leaves is of brave big fight performances in which he would come up short, and a loyal, rabid fanbase that was willing to support him till the very end.
And he made more than a few bucks while he was at it.
DISTRESS SIGNALS
Didn’t Kermit Cintron, who struggled to get rid of the game Jesse Feliciano on Friday night, remind you of that guy who was looking for a lifeguard, screaming that he was drowning, while he was only submerged in about three feet of water?
And his (over) reaction to his banged up right hand immediately after the fight is very telling in many respects. The way he was writhing around the canvas in pain as if he were hit by a bullet, if you didn’t know any better, you might’ve guessed he was the victim of an LA drive-by. But you get the sense that what was really stressing him out wasn’t inside his right Cleto-Reyes, but between his two ears. It’s safe to say Emanuel Steward has to be more psychologist than boxing trainer with this guy sometimes. Plenty of fighters suffer debilitating injuries in the heat of battle. Not many have ever reacted quite like that.
As for the status of his right hand, Steward would tell Maxboxing on Sunday afternoon, “I just couldn’t believe it could be broken because of the way I wrapped it. When he came back – just as Andy Lee predicted – the doctor said there were no breaks. It’s just bruised.”
So what is the status of his February 2nd unification tilt against WBO belt-holder Paul Williams? According to Steward, “There’s a good chance he’ll be fighting the 2nd of February.”
SHOWTIME SHOWCASES
Showtime ends the year on Saturday with a tripleheader featuring Antonio Tarver, Vernon Forrest and Nonito Donaire. The network has had a solid 2007 with both Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez tilts, Chad Dawson-Tomasz Adamek, Donaire-Vic Darchinyan, and Samuel Peter-Jameel McCline, among others, but the problem with this telecast is that the above-mentioned trio are facing opponents that are all heavy underdogs.
Forrest-Michelle Piccirillo is a fight that has snoozer written all over it and Luis Maldonado doesn’t figure to have nearly enough firepower to keep Donaire off him for all 12 rounds. As for Tarver, who was given Elvir Muriqi by the network in June, till he mans up and faces Chad Dawson, shouldn’t be given any more freebies.
KAT?S BACK
Michael Katsidis is back in the gym and beginning preparations for his next bout, no matter who it comes against. He and his trainer/manager Brendan Smith were at the Wild Card this week and sparred six rounds on Wednesday. The cuts he suffered from his bloody war against Czar Amonsot in July seemed to have healed up just fine.
Both Katsidis and Smith seem to have no problem about the 20-80 split they would have to take in order to face lightweight champion Juan Diaz (no, it’s not Joel Casamayor). They believe what’s most important is the opportunity to face ‘the Baby Bull’ and that they will be more than fairly compensated after they come out victorious.
Now that’s the fighting spirit.
The purse bid for Diaz-Katsidis takes place on Tuesday.
FINAL FLURRIES
With Madison Square Garden hosting the January 19th bout between Roy Jones and Felix Trinidad and the February 23rd heavyweight unification bout between Wlad Klitschko and Sultan Ibragimov, I wonder if there’s any chance of Isiah Thomas and Stephon Marbury duking it out on the undercard….If I had a Heisman ballot it would read: 1- Tim Tebow, 2- Darren McFadden, 3- Chase Daniel…..I just viewed Javier Castillejo’s sixth round TKO of Mariano Carrera, which earned him another shot at the WBA title held by Felix Sturm. At age 39, he’s a much more crowd-pleasing performer than he was earlier in his career….No doubt about it, the SEC is the best conference in college football….I thought lightweight Juanito Garcia, who moved to 13-0 on Telefutura, looked like a very well-schooled boxer to look out for….Anyone have Fox Sports Espanol? They show some interesting boxing, including local shows from Tijuana. I saw one that had young super flyweight David De La Mora, who is now 7-0 with 4 KO’s. In stopping Javier Meraz in two, he looked like a prospect to keep an eye on….Antonio Lozado Jr. was on that same card. He’s a 5’10 lightweight who is now 13-0 with 13 stoppages. But he’s very green and only 17 years old. He will be brought along slowly….About a year after facing Floyd Mayweather, Carlos Baldomir is struggling to win on Telefutura against Luciano Perez. That’s all you need to know about Baldomir and Mayweather fans that trumpet that as some sort of great achievement….The replay of Mayorga-Vargas can be seen on ESPN Classic on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET…..Will Thursday night?s game between the Packers and Cowboys be the best game almost nobody will get to see?
