By Luis Sandoval

Juan Manuel Marquez chalked up another masterful performance Saturday night as he thoroughly beat Mike Alvarado and has now put himself back in title contention for Manny Pacquiao’s WBO Welterweight title. The question now is will Marquez fight Pacquiao a fifth time in order to fulfill his goal of becoming the first Mexican fighter to win five titles in five different divisions.

There are mixed reactions to a fifth installment between these two future hall of fame fighters. Some love the idea these two warriors doing it one more time and others feel we’ve seen enough and would rather see them fight other challengers.

HBO analyst Max Kellerman spoke to BoxingScene shortly after the Marquez-Alvarado fight and while he’s almost sure a fifth fight happens, he’s just not sure what the outcome would be.

“I think we will see that fight and who knows [what happens]. Even when Marquez put his lights out, it was a really competitive fight up until that point. These guys are evenly matched and always have been. I think usually in the past, in the first three fights at least, it’s can Marquez overcome the early rounds onslaught where Pacquiao knocks him down a bunch of times. And if Marquez can – which he always has- he winds up out boxing Pacquiao the rest of the way. The question then is by how much” Kellerman would tell BoxingScene.

Marquez and Pacquiao have provided some great fights but all of their meetings except for the fourth one have ended in controversy as the fights have been close. There are many that feel Marquez deserved the nod in at least one if not all first three fights but one thing Kellerman feels is despite the scoring controversy is that Pacquiao showed he was getting better with each fight.

“I do think that if you look at the way those fights have gone, my scorecard I had Marquez by 3 points in their first fight. I had Marquez by a point in their second fight. I had it a draw in their third fight and obviously Marquez knocked him out in the fourth fight.  But the judges basically had it the same way. Not that they had Marquez winning the first two but first it’s a draw, then it’s Pacquiao on a split. Then it’s Pacquiao unanimous. In other words, they thought Pacquiao was doing better and better as the series moved on and so did I” shared Kellerman.

“I thought in every fight, even in the fourth fight, that Pacquiao was doing a little bit better up until the point he got his lights turned out. So it’s a really interesting fight in the sense that Marquez won definitively. It was the first time one of those guys won definitively. Knocked Pacquiao out but if you look at trend of all the series of fights up until then, the trend has been Pacquiao does a little better, a little better right up until he got his lights put out”.

Marquez was asked repeatedly by reporters if a fifth fight with Pacquiao would happen but all he could offer was that he needed some rest and time to think about his decision on what’s next. If they do fight again, it’s hard to imagine their fifth bout not being another memorable affair like their four previous encounters.

You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter & Instagram @Truewest007.