“Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” The German poet Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe’s quote was a reality last Saturday night in Las Vegas when the prides of two nations entered the ring and fought a battle that had every heart pounding with excitement. The scene was set in Vegas with the buildup leading up to the third chapter of Manny Pacquiao versus Juan Manuel Marquez. I was honored to be the scribe dispactched to cover the event for FightHype. My expectations of what I was about to witness were that I was likely to see the brutal ending of the career of Mexican warrior Marquez, while the pride of the Philippines, Manny Pacquiao, would have the type of performance that would solidify his stand as the top fighter in the world. With Floyd Mayweather having defeated Victor Ortiz, it was now Pacqiao’s turn to stake his claim to number 1.
My expert opinion of what I expected going in was that at welterweight, Pacquiao would be too strong and would stop Marquez within six rounds, and the knockout would raise eyebrows, much like the way Tommy Hearns stopped Roberto Duran. Prior to that stoppage, the demand for a fight between Hearns and Marvin Hagler had not yet boiled, but after the crushing right hand to the jaw of Duran, the public’s focus was on a Hagler-Hearns match-up. With much public thirst for Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather to share the same stage on the same evening, a Pacquiao destruction of Marquez would make the pot boil over and it was going to be time for the mega-fight. Perhaps it was something in the air or the alignment of the stars that makes you oversee the hopes and dreams of the other combatant, ready to steal the reality of what was presumed.
