By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Promoter Murad Muhammad says that Ring Magazine and feartherweight “People’s Champion” Manny Pacquiao will fight WBA Super Champion and IBF Champion Juan Manuel Marquez in a rematch fight fans are demanding, in February next year, provided Marquez successfully defends his title against Oscar Salido in the undercard of the blockbuster battle between Bernard Hopkins and Oscar De La Hoya.
In an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Murad said that in order to keep Pacquiao in shape and to overcome his restlessness he was trying to arrange a non-title fight in Manila with an undefeated Thai opponent whose name he could not recall or a title fight against WBA champion Chris John of Indonesia who had earlier said he was willing to put his title on the line against Pacquiao even in Manila. Murad said he was scheduled to discuss details with Pacquiao’s business manager Rod Nazario even as he disclosed he already had lined up a couple of sponsors. Murad also revealed that HBO Sports had “promised to help” without giving details.
Murad confirmed that HBO had no fight dates available this year for Pacquiao even though the flamboyant Filipino southpaw has a deal with the sports network. Murad pointed out that other big name fighters “under contract with HBO” such as Floyd Mayweather, Antonio Tarver and Vernon Forrest “have no dates” stressing that under the circumstances he was “doing the best we can.”
Murad indicated that the best option would be for Pacquiao “to go home and make the fight in November, so he won’t be restless.”
Top Rank Inc. president Bob Arum who earlier undercut a planned Pacquiao-Barrera rematch supported Murad's claims saying that HBO had "no dates remaining this year" and that he had "spoken to Murad and we're hoping to arrange a Marquez-Pacquiao rematch in January or February next year." Marquez himself said "I would have liked to have that fight so we could have found out a real result from the draw we had the last time. But I'm meeting a good guy (Salido). Its a great fight for me and I'm sure the rematch (with Pacquiao) will come." Arum added that Salido was the mandatory IBF challenger and Marquez had to fight him before Pacquiao.
Murad also ruled out a title fight with WBO champion Scott Harrison in Glasgow emphasizing that “we cannot do a deal with Harrison in England because he will stand up for twelve rounds and get the decision. We don’t want to go into his territory and he won’t fight in the US.”
Murad is credited with having gotten Pacquiao the big breaks by landing the IBF junior featherweight title fight against Lelohonolo Ledwaba and setting up his fight against legendary featherweight Marco Antonio Barrera that made Pacquiao a superstar followed by the title shot against Marquez, but his failure to get Pacquiao a fight in the US before the year ends has once again raised the issue of a possible non-renewal of his contract which reportedly expires next February. However, Murad insists this is not true and his contract doesn’t expire next year. At the same time he said that Pacquiao wants $1 million for his next fight but indicated it was difficult because “he didn’t win against Marquez” although he should have if one judge hadn’t made a mistake in scoring the first round 10-7 despite the three knockdowns, instead of the correct score which should have been 10-6.