By Brad Cronick: Manny Pacquiao’s career isn’t over just because he was stopped in the 6th round by Juan Manuel Marquez last Saturday night. This is something that happens in boxing especially when fighters are going all out looking to score a knockout like Pacquiao was in the 6th round when he got knocked flat by a right hand from Marquez.
If Pacquiao can come back from this and win his next fight, it’ll be forgotten about by boxing fans. However, it’s not a good sign that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is already taking about matching them back up again because this puts a lot of pressure on Pacquiao to find success against a guy that has honestly had his number in all four fights.
That’s not the smartest move you can make. I don’t know if Arum has been keeping track of the four fights, but Pacquiao really has been very lucky to get those two wins and one draw in the first three fights of the Pacquiao-Marquez series because Marquez proved without a doubt that he was the better fighter in each of the fights, even if with him getting knocked down four times. He simply was better. And with the added muscle that Marquez has put on now, he’s a much different fighter from the one that Pacquiao fought and struggled with in their first three fights.
Pacquiao might as well have been fighting a middleweight last Saturday because that’s the kind of power that Marquez had going for him. I think Pacquiao’s career can be saved but it’s going to take some of Arum’s good old soft match-making that he’s done for some of his past fighters such as Miguel Cotto for him to get the last bit of miles out of his Filipino star. Putting Pacquiao back in with Marquez is probably a career ender for Pacquiao. That’s okay if Arum is aware of it, but if he thinks Pacquiao is going to all of a sudden show something that he’s not shown in the first four fights with Marquez then he’s kidding himself. It’s not going to happen.