By Rob Smith: If you had any doubts about who will be winning the fifth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez this September, you can erase those doubts and lean in the direction of Marquez to beat Manny again.
Besides the fact that Marquez has gotten the better of Pacquiao in all four of their previous fights, it’s going to be even easier this time around given that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is highly interested in staging the fight in Mexico City, Mexico in order to save some money on taxes for all of them.
I don’t know how much Arum will ultimately save by putting the fight in Mexico, but I think he’ll sorry for having done it after Marquez knocks Pacquiao out again. The reason why it’s going to be easier this time is because the crowd will likely be predominately Marquez fans with just a few Pacquiao fans.
Marquez will be fighting well in front of his own Mexican boxing fans and he’s going to be looking to stop Pacquiao. It’s going to be easier for Marquez because Pacquiao will be desperate to try and prove himself after having lost his last two fights.
That desperation is going to likely cause Pacquiao to fight in the same risky manner than he did last December when Marquez knocked him out in the 6th round. I have doubts that Pacquiao is going to be able to take any of Marquez’s big power shots without hitting the deck. I’m sure Pacquiao will keep getting up, but I think Marquez will ultimately hit him with a shot that he can’t get up from and he’ll be counted out.
Arum and Pacquiao will definitely save money by having the fight staged in Mexico, but I’m just not sure how happy they’ll be after the fight. Another loss for Pacquiao will be his 3rd straight defeat and if Arum insists on putting Pacquiao back in with Marquez for a 6th fight, after seeing how good the PPV numbers were from the 5th fight, it’s just going to make things even worse for Pacquiao if he gets knocked out again.