By Ronnie Nathanielsz
JUAN Manuel Marquez against Manny Pacquiao—that’s the fight people want to see.
This was revealed by Golden Boy Promotions’ Oscar de la Hoya in an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Standard Today.
“Everybody that I asked, everybody that I talked to, that’s the fight that has to happen,” said De la Hoya, who added they cannot start any negotiations because Marquez has “a very difficult fight with Rocky Juarez on Nov. 3.”
The Golden Boy said he will be in Arizona for the fight. “After the fight, if he [Marquez] wins, then we’ll start the talks with Pacquiao’s co-promoter Top Rank about a possible future fight.”
De la Hoya said Pacquiao has a lot of big fights ahead of him but “it would be unjust to the boxing fans not to have a Marquez fight. Obviously, the first fight they had was a very exciting one, where they had a draw so it would be fair to everyone to make that fight happen.”
De la Hoya rejected claims that Marquez cannot draw saying that it depends on whom you are fighting. He cited the example of his fight with Felix Sturm, whom nobody really knew and did only 400,000 homes on pay-per-view. But when he fought Floyd Mayweather Jr., he did 2.4 million homes, which was the biggest event in boxing history. “It depends who you fight and it depends on your opponent.”
De la Hoya was certain that a Pacquiao-Marquez fight “will draw big numbers because Marquez is the only Mexican still standing to try and get revenge against Pacquiao so that’s a very interesting story.” He said you have to remember that their first meeting was “an outstanding fight and I believe that if Marquez wins [against Juarez] that’s the fight that should happen.”
