Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez have fought 36 rounds now. It could be 136, and the outcome would be the same. We still wouldn’t have a definitive winner.
That’s how evenly matched these two are.
Styles make fights, and it’s clear that Marquez’s counterpunching style will always give Pacquiao fits.
Their third and most recent fight in their thrilling trilogy ? in front of a sellout crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena ? was close, just as the first two were. Just as a fourth fight would be.
But, please, no more talk of a Pacquiao-Marquez IV.
We need to keep our eyes on the prize. Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is still the fight everyone wants to see.
Maybe not quite as much as before. Some of the megafight luster might have been lost after Pacquiao’s latest narrow victory over Marquez. Even if he didn’t win the fight ? many believe he did ? Marquez was successful in putting a dent in the Pacquiao mystique.
But maybe this helps the effort to make Pacquiao-Mayweather I.
It’s the Mayweather people who now are pushing for the fight. Mayweather, not Pacquiao, is now regarded as the new pound-for-pound king of boxing.
That has provided a nice boost for ?Pretty Boy? Floyd’s ego, which despite all the bluster, can be pretty fragile.
Plus, Mayweather now has some tangible evidence that he likely would, in fact, beat Pacquiao head-to-head. After all, the same fighter he dominated two years ago gave Pacquiao headaches two weeks ago.
