Manny Pacquiao sat in his closet of a dressing room Wednesday at Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. Surrounded by a handful of reporters and one annoying photographer who rarely stopped clicking away, Pacquiao patiently answered questions.
What he didn’t do was come clean about how upset he was with Juan Manuel Marquez, who will challenge Pacquiao on Nov. 12 for his welterweight championship at MGM Grand in Las Vegas (HBO pay-per-view.).
They have fought twice before, in 2004 for a featherweight title and in 2008 for a super featherweight belt. Marquez got up from three first-round knockdowns in the first fight to earn a draw. Marquez complained he had won.
Pacquiao won a split decision in the second fight and Marquez and his entire camp whined in the post-fight news conference as if Marquez had beaten the daylights out of Pacquiao.
That was utterly ridiculous.
Marquez, taking it a step further, had the temerity to display his feelings on a T-shirt in Pacquiao’s native Philippines during the recent media tour for this third fight.
Marquez just doesn’t want to give Pacquiao any credit, and that would infuriate most fighters. According to Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, his fighter is angry. He just won’t say it.
“One hundred percent yes,” said Roach, when asked if this fight is personal for Pacquiao. “The biggest slap in the face was when he came to the Philippines and wore a T-shirt that said, `I beat Pacquiao twice.’
