“There is always a way to even the playing field if you’re willing to find that way, and Marquez evened the playing field. He wasn’t the faster guy, he wasn’t the stronger guy, he wasn’t the bigger guy or the younger guy, but he found a way to even the playing field. He used timing. Timing, that I always say on ESPN, negates speed…what he did was he waited for the other guy to lead. He changed the distance just a little bit, and when the other guy led and reached a little bit, he countered and he timed it with right hands. He timed him coming…he did what I say sometimes, he caught him coming and he caught him going…I don’t think you’re going to see a 4th fight. I don’t think Pacquiao is going to go there again. I think Pacquiao is going to finish his career off and go into a different direction. There are so many other options out there for this guy. He has so many options out there because of his unique situation with his country and the iconic status that he has in his country, and all of those options he has with politics, entertainment, and everything else. I think you might of saw…and I’m taking nothing away from Marquez, but you might of seen a little erosion in those areas; not physically, but in those areas because so much is on his plate and so many things are happening in his life. I didn’t see Manny Pacquiao take the chances and fight with the aggression, and again, part of that is Marquez, but I didn’t see that attitude,” stated ESPN commentator and world-class trainer Teddy Atlas as he shared his thoughts Manny Pacquiao’s razor-thin victory over Juan Manuel Marquez and the likelihood of whether or not there will be a 4th fight between the two. Check out what else he had to say!
PC: Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez had another tough and very close fight this year. There are talks of a 4th fight. Do you think these guys will always be in the same league? Will all of their fights look like the first 3?
TA: Yeah, I actually wrote a story about that in Boxing Monthly. That’s a magazine that asks me to write a report once a month, and whatever they pay, they give it to my foundation. I don’t take the money. I let them give it to my foundation and it’s a magazine that is published out of London. I write a story once a month and they asked me to write about that third fight. I said I gave Marquez, and it’s obviously written, but I gave Marquez a good chance to win the fight. What I said in the story that I wrote is, I don’t care if these guys fought a million times, I don’t care if they are 100 years old, or if it’s in the middle of winter and you wake ’em up out of bed at 2:00 in the morning, because of the styles and because of the makeups of these fighters, especially from Marquez’s side with his psychological makeup and his pride, his style and his confidence, with this particular fighter, just everything, all of those things which I think is all part of it, I think he will always give Pacquiao hell. If he’s 80 years old and you take his cane away from him right before he gets in the ring, he’s always going to give Pacquiao hell. That fight obviously spoke exactly to that point, and obviously there is truth to that statement; that he is the style, the type of fighter, and the mental makeup of a guy that will just always give fits to Pacquiao, always. And for a lot of reasons, I watched that fight at 7 in the morning form Russia.
I thought he won the fight. He tired a little bit. He dissipated a little bit down the stretch, which I saw, but as far as landing the more effective punches, which this sport is about, and landing the cleaner punches and the more telling punches, I thought that was one guy and that was Marquez. It was a close fight, but I thought Marquez landed the more effective punches and did the more effective work. And the reason he did it is because he used his experience. He has confidence with this particular guy. He has pride against this particular guy and he has great experience against him, and he used his experience to…I always say to fighters and to people, in anything in life, but particularly when we’re talking about boxing, but in anything, there is always a way, if you’re willing to be smart enough and work hard enough and use everything that is available to you, there is always a way to even the playing field. There is always a way. Somebody smarter than you, somebody faster than you, stronger than you, somebody richer than you (laughing), whatever, there is always a way. There is always an element out there to find a plan to even the playing field, to even things out a little bit, and to make things even. That’s why mankind has survived so many years. The dinosaurs where bigger and stronger than us, but we readily found a spear (laughing). We found a mountain or hill to throw the spear from. We found a way to dig a hole to make them fall into a trap.
There is always a way to even the playing field if you’re willing to find that way, and Marquez evened the playing field. He wasn’t the faster guy, he wasn’t the stronger guy, he wasn’t the bigger guy or the younger guy, but he found a way to even the playing field. He used timing. Timing, that I always say on ESPN, negates speed. So what did he do? He knew if he just went out there and got lost in space, then he would have got lost in space. He couldn’t just go out there and engage Pacquiao on even terms in a regular situation in the middle of the ring and just throw punches with no thought of anything else and just leave it to the physical dimensions that it would have been left to. Well, then Pacquiao would have been the greater guy. He would have been the superior guy. But he didn’t do that. He chose not to do that and it was his choice to choose what not to do and what to do. What he did was, he didn’t engage in those areas. He didn’t lead to where if he would have led, the faster guy would have got the better of it. He would have got himself in some precarious situations. Instead, what he did was he waited for the other guy to lead. He changed the distance just a little bit, and when the other guy led and reached a little bit, he countered and he timed it with right hands. He timed him coming…he did what I say sometimes, he caught him coming and he caught him going. That’s really what he did. He timed him coming in and he knew that, “Okay, another time that I can throw this and it makes sense, I can throw it when he goes back.” He knew he could not throw it when they were in the center of the ring and everything was on an even field. He knew he couldn’t throw then, but when he was going back, yes, and when he was coming forward, yes. That’s what he did and I applaud him for having the smarts and the intellect to do that, and the experience to execute it, and also the professionalism to do it consistently throughout the night. I thought he did a great job and I thought he won the fight. But boxing is not always fair. It’s really an unforgiving sport. It can be unforgiving physically, unforgiving emotionally, and the judges can make it very unforgiving too. But I give him all of the credit in the world.
I don’t think you’re going to see a 4th fight. I don’t think Pacquiao is going to go there again. I think Pacquiao is going to finish his career off and go into a different direction. There are so many other options out there for this guy. He has so many options out there because of his unique situation with his country and the iconic status that he has in his country, and all of those options he has with politics, entertainment, and everything else. I think you might of saw…and I’m taking nothing away from Marquez, but you might of seen a little erosion in those areas; not physically, but in those areas because so much is on his plate and so many things are happening in his life. I didn’t see Manny Pacquiao take the chances and fight with the aggression, and again, part of that is Marquez, but I didn’t see that attitude. You’re going to have people out there that say, “Ah, you’re knocking Pacquiao because you don’t like him.” No, I’m not doing anything. I’m making a statement from my eyes and my experience that maybe you don’t understand. Maybe you don’t believe it, and that’s fine. And maybe I’m right and maybe I’m wrong, but I think that you saw a little bit of that erosion; that erosion from a mental and emotional standpoint where he didn’t take the chances he would have taken 5 years ago. He didn’t find a way to just kind of overcome and dare Marquez to do some of the things he did. You didn’t see that because that urgency to do those things does not exist anymore. And again, some of it was Marquez timing him and doing certain things, no doubt about it, but pushing the envelope and doing it to a higher level and higher exertion degree, I didn’t see that. And I think that part of the reason is what I just described. He’s got so many things going on and so many options out there that sometimes, when there is that many options, some of the urgency from the one option that used to exist is not that anymore, because that one option isn’t important as it used to be and it’s not as urgent as it used to be.
