Manny Pacquiao has decided that an aging Shane Mosley is the best opponent for him. This proves that Pacquiao is reluctant, or dare I say, scared, to fight Juan Manuel Marquez. Why? Is the pound for pound champ really scared of someone whose nose he has already broken?
The recent announcement that Manny Pacquiao will fight Shane Mosley next has ruined all the momentum that boxing has garnered over the last 2 months. To the most mainstream fans, boxing won’t matter to them unless Pacquiao and Mayweather meet. However, the true boxing fans know that Juan Manuel Marquez has earned a third fight with Pacquiao as well.
Mosley gets the fight with Pacquiao next because everyone knows who he is. Mosley is the closest to a household name of any of Pacquiao’s choices for opponents. The problem is, this isn’t the Shane Mosley who was unbeatable at lightweight and overwhelmed Oscar De La Hoya in their 1st fight. This isn’t even the guy Margarito lost two to years ago. There is no more Sugar. Mosley has reached his expiration date. Bob Arum will get severe criticism for this, but what about Manny Pacquiao? There may be a dent forming in Manny’s recently perfect armor.
Pacquiao should have made Bob Arum see that even though Mosley has the name, Marquez will get more PPV buys because it’s more of a challenge. Pacquiao didn’t do that because he knows that he doesn’t want to fight Marquez. Bob Arum would never seriously consider giving Marquez a chance because of what happened in the first two fights between Marquez and Pacquiao. I thought that even though Pacquiao didn’t want the fight, he would still accept the challenge, but I was wrong.
Manny Pacquiao has avoided giving Juan Manuel Marquez a third fight because he knows that Marquez has given him more problems than anyone else, and he doesn’t want to deal with those problems again. Pacquiao wants safe fights where he can make money and not feel that he is in any real danger to lose.
Manny Pacquiao’s popularity should slightly take a hit among hardcore fans. The worst part about all of this is that Pacquiao could easily beat Marquez at any weight between 140 and 147, but we won’t know because Pacquiao probably plans to never fight Marquez again.
