On November 12th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Manny ?Pacman? Pacquiao (53-3-2 with 38 KOs) and Juan Manuel Marquez (53-5-1 with 39 KOs), two rivals and future Hall of Famers will battle for Pacquiao?s WBO welterweight title. More importantly, it will likely be the closing chapter in a rivalry that in some people?s minds will be remembered as the sub-heavyweight version of Muhammad Ali’s three fights vs. Ken Norton in the 1970s. There are a good amount of people who believe that Norton (who won the first fight breaking Ali?s jaw in the process) deserved to win all three fights, but Ali officially won the second and third fights. Norton, though less gifted and dynamic than Ali, was thought to have had Ali?s number, much like Vernon Forrest had Shane Mosley?s number and Iran Barkley had Tommy Hearns? number.
The difference between Marquez and Forrest, Norton, and Barkley is that Marquez is a more cerebral and technical boxer/puncher (especially compared to Norton and Barkley) who in my opinion will be judged as historically greater than those fine fighters. Forrest was a very good, intelligent fighter, but he didn?t quite build the Hall of Fame career that Marquez has built off the strength of Marquez’s two close fights with Pacquiao (one a draw, one a split-decision loss to Pacquiao), wins over very good fighters like Juan Diaz and his victory over the great Marco Antonio Barrera. What Pacquiao has accomplished subsequent to his very close fights with Marquez has only made the fact that Marquez was able to hang with Pacquiao (win, lose, or draw) that much greater. There are a lot of questions that will be answered after this third fight, one of them being how much has Pacquiao really improved since their second fight in March 2008 ended in a razor-thin split decision victory for Pacquiao? It?s clear as day that Pacquiao has improved significantly since their first fight back in 2004 when he was a great, but one-dimensional, one-handed fighter who won fights with his sheer athleticism, speed, and dynamite in his left hand.
