WITH Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez IV exactly a week away, the excitement has begun to ratchet up a bit, a welcome development from the initial malaise and indifference that seemed to greet the fight?s announcement a few months back.
Interestingly this time around, in the informal survey I?ve been conducting among readers, friends and acquaintances, there?s an increase among those who believe Marquez can pull off the win.
Previously only about 10-20 percent intrepid souls favored Marquez, but now they are surging to about 30 percent.
Perhaps you can attribute that to Pacquiao?s rather unimpressive last two performances.
Or the indisputable fact that Marquez always has Manny?s number and ?Dinamita? seems to be supremely confident that the law on averages coming into this fourth fight will favor him.
But I am also sensing that all the snarling and bruiting about Marquez?s improved muscular physique probably has a lot to do with it.
MUSCLES. But do muscles really make the fighter? Does an imposing physique guarantee a better performance? Is it the papal bull of fighting methodology?
Just last week, muscle-bound Andre Berto got the beating of his life from the pedestrian-looking but superbly conditioned Robert ?The Ghost? Guerrero.
Berto got beat up so bad, he made Rocky Balboa proud.
Or do you remember how Fernando Vargas hooked up with a new trainer before his fight with Oscar de la Hoya and pumped himself up into rock-like proportions, thinking he would be able to bully the smallish ?Golden Boy??
Vargas ran out of steam in the middle rounds and was unceremoniously knocked out in the 11th.
He later tested positive for stanozolol and was suspended. Vargas disassociated himself from his trainer, claiming he was unaware of what he was ingesting, but innocent or not, his impressive-looking muscles served him squat in that fight.
Or what about Manny?s last opponent, Timothy Bradley? ?Desert Storm? had a well-sculpted, defined physique where you would have a hard time finding a dollop of fat.
Hell, even his muscles had muscles. Did that make him the stronger fighter in there?
No. Manny dominated him and rocked him on several occasions. Though he was able to land clean shots on Manny, at no time was the Pacman ever in trouble.
The rock-hard Bradley will never be known as Pacquiao?s most difficult opponent to date. That honor belongs to Marquez.
Don?t me wrong. Marquez can probably derive additional strength from those extra muscles and these may aid him during clinches so he can leverage for better position.
Plus, it may also provide that extra layer of physical insulation from the pounding that is sure to come to his body.
But muscles require a lot of oxygen and this could potentially drain Marquez in the latter stages of the fight. Bigger muscles also sacrifice speed, which is an integral part of his game.
More importantly, all that muscle is not going to add an extra layer of iron on that chinny-chin-chin of his.
VITAMIN PEE. All told, I think all the hoopla about Marquez?s physique is just plain media hype and only serves to distract from the real business on hand: How to fight effectively.
I know Freddie Roach is more concerned with technique rather than Marquez?s conditioning. After all, he should be accustomed by now to all the voodoo coming from someone who drinks his own pee.
LAST ROUND. It?s on my inaanak, Juana Heyrosa, who celebrates her birthday this week. Cheers!
