Top Rank failing to make Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez agree on Pacquiao vs Marquez V is still a sore point today.
Looking back, WBN decided to analyze closely why Pacquiao – a legend of the sport – failed to land the fifth fight with Marquez.
Once Marquez had landed the ‘punch heard around the world’ on December 8th in Las Vegas, talks began for a fifth installment almost immediately.
They hit one stumbling block after another.
Pacquiao vs Marquez V
Pay Per View sales of over 1.1 million, coupled with how the fight ended, a fifth seemed the highly logical next step.
Within days, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum made his thoughts clear.
“We’re going to, I think, do another fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. That was a great fight,” Arum told TMZ at the time. “He ran into a perfect right hand.
“We’ll see what happens next time,” he added.
Pacquiao, at 33, had any chance of fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 ripped away from him by a solitary blow from ‘Dinamita.’
Knockout
That spectacular punch at the MGM Grand sent shockwaves through boxing due to its nature. Initially, some fans thought the Filipino Senator should avoid another clash with the Mexican.
Pacquiao gave his thoughts just a few days on from Arum. The eight-weight champion seemingly didn’t want to pressure Marquez.
“It is up to him,” Pacquiao told the Manila Standard. “Me? Well, everybody knows I’ll fight anyone.
“I am not scared of anybody. And that is the reason why boxing fans like me so much. I never avoid anyone. I don’t choose easy fights. I’ll fight anybody, anytime, anywhere.”
“If he (Marquez) doesn’t want to fight me, then I don’t want to fight him either. So be it. It’s that simple.
“He says he doesn’t want to fight me because he won our last fight? Well, I am still ahead in the tally of our last four fights. I won two, lost one, and drew one.”
Pacquiao Hope
Outlining his plans for the coming year, Pacquiao initially hoped to face Marquez again in the fall of 2013.
“Bob Arum and I have been talking and will continue talking. What is definite is they’ll see me fight again come September.
“Not April nor immediately after that as speculations are going. Tell the public that it won’t be long before I make them happy again when I fight,” stated Pacquiao.
He ended up staying out of the ring until November. Despite trying to convince Marquez to accept the fight.
Shrewd Marquez
As it turned out, Marquez wanted no part of Pacquiao again. He’d made his point after being very unhappy with decisions not going his way in the three previous bouts.
Landing that solid shot was the plan all along. If he planted it as he did, Marquez would never accept any amount of money to do it again.
By January 2013, as Top Rank’s Carl Moretti exclusively told World Boxing News, hopes for fight number five plummeted.
“The fight (between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Marquez) is off,” Moretti told WBN. “No serious consideration has been given to anything yet.”
Even a rumored mega-offer further down the line wasn’t enough for Marquez to change his mind.
In hindsight, Marquez made a shrewd decision that was undoubtedly correct.
WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
