Like the power his punches generate, Manny Pacquiao unleashed a verbal sortie on Mexican rival the first time they came face-to-face Wednesday and it didn?t sit well with Juan Manuel Marquez.
“Marquez is a great fighter and I respect him as the champ. But I am a champ too!,” said Pacquiao. “This is a big important fight and I have to win if I want to fight (Erik) Morales.”
That was Pacquiao?s retort to Marquez?s statement that “there will be fire in the ring on May 8” and that it took him a lot of hardwork to become a world champion and “only in death will he relinquish his belts.”
It was the press launching of the May 8 fight between the two hard-hitting fighters at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles with Marquez, the IBF/WBA featherweight champion, staking his twin 126-lb belts against the Filipino champion, who moved up to featherweight and destroyed Marco Barrera last November.
