PACQUIAO-MARQUEZ IV: EXPECT ANOTHER CLASSIC
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 07 Dec 2012
LAS VEGAS(PNA via PCSO)? Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao, by nature is not a talker. He doesn?t need to.
More often, it?s chief trainer Freddie Roach who does answer, whenever harsh words are thrown in his pupil?s direction.
In Wednesday?s press conference for the fourth chapter of Pacquiao?s rivalry with Juan Manuel Marquez, it was his counsel Ging Gacal who was picked by Top Rank?s Bob Arum to respond to Marquez?s pronouncement that his December 8 encounter with Pacquiao is ?gonna be war.?
Media men in attendance in the presscon held at the Hollywood Theater of the MGM Grand didn?t know whether it was planned or scripted as it was the first time since Pacquiao?s rise to prominence in the land of sweet and honey that Gacal had to take to the podium and he did it with aplomb.
?After 36 rounds and 108 minutes of fighting, we?re going to another 12 rounds to decide which between Pacquiao and Marquez is the better fighter,? Gacal, Pacquiao?s political adviser who, is running as councilor in his native General Santos City, told his audience.
?Thirty six rounds for these guys seems not enough. But I won?t contradict myself, this rivalry will never reach 48 rounds,? he added suggesting that the eight-division world champion is not allowing this fourth meeting to last another 12 rounds. ?Manny?s eyes are focused on beating Marquez as what he did in their previous three fights.?
?Manny Pacquiao is running for re-election (as Sarangani Province Congressman) unopposed in the 2013 elections, so his eyes are fixed only on one opponent, Juan Manuel Marquez.?, Gacal said.
When his turn at the podium came, the normally cool Pacquiao, in a white suit over a gray polo short and with his trademark grin, could only say softly, even sounding apologetic: ?This fight, my fourth fight with Marquez is going to be a good fight. I was told he worked hard for this fight and that he trained hard to prove something. I?m ready for that.?
A pre-fight conference normally is marked by boasting, even threatening in high decibels and Marquez, who was in jogging suit with a pair of flaming red snickers, came true to form launching a few missiles.
?I?m happy for this fourth fight. It?s gonna be war! The ?Dinamita? said in a statement he repeated at least five times. ?This fight, is my most important fight. This will be a good fight because he knows me and I know him.?
Arum said what makes the confrontation a ?most spectacular event in many years is it offers what the 36 previous rounds couldn?t, a definitive winner. I know that Juan Manuel Marquez believes he won all three fights and wants to win this fourth by knockout.?
?And I know that Manny Pacquiao, experiencing the fine judging in this town earlier in the year in this very same area in June is also not going to leave the outcome in the hands of the judges,? the Top Rank top honcho who will turn 81 on Sunday, recalled in reference to the Pacman?s points loss to Tim Bradley.
Arum said that while the Pacquiao-Marquez rivalry comes in the form of a Philippine-Mexico feud, there is another rivalry in the presence of Miss Universe contestants, Filipina Janine Toyogon and Mexican Carissa Gonzales, whom he called to join Saturday?s protagonists in a photo session.
Roach, for his part said, he considers his rivalry with his counterpart in the Marquez camp, Ignacio ?Nacho? Beristain as a good rivalry. Counting the Pacquiao-Oscar DeLa Hoya fight where Beristain was also at the corner of the American, Roach owns a 3-0-1 win-loss draw over the Mexican guru.
Beristain sees the coming fight as promising to be a classic sensational encounter between two of the finest fighters in the world today.
PHOTO : Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez during Wednesday's press Conference held at the Hollywood theater of the MGM Grand for their coming fourth fight on Saturday (Sunday in Manila). Photos by WENDELL RUPERT ALINEA (via PCSO)
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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