One fight Pacquiao cannot forever ignore

If Manny Pacquiao decides to move up to the lightweight division (135 lbs.), that is his business. He is the one who knows his body best. If it is true he had a hard time scaling down to 130 lbs., the weight limit set for his fight with Marco Antonio Barrera last October 6, the option to move up may come even sooner than later.

But it is a decision that does not merely involve his physical condition. It will also have to come after due consideration of his business prospects. Will the move, if ever, mean more lucrative fights, or will it result in a drying up of the fishpond?

Right now, there are better prospects where he is at the moment. The superfeatherweight (jr. lightweight) division is populated with a lot of interesting prospects for more lucrative match-ups, mostly up and coming exciting fighters. By comparison, there are fewer crowd-pleasers in the heavier category.

The most compelling prospect of the superfeatherweights is of course no other than the reigning champion Juan Manuel Marquez. In fact, Marquez ought to have been the better choice as a foe for Pacquiao last October 6 than Barrera.

Barrera was previously beaten convincingly by Pacquiao, in an 11th round technical knockout. Barrera was on the verge of going down when his brother and trainer threw in the towel to spare him from further punishment. No victory could have been more convincing than that.

The money factor aside, there would have been no need for Pacquiao to have a rematch with Barrera because no questions were left hanging in the air. But boxing is business, and between Barrera and Marquez, the former is decidedly the more exciting fighter and thus, a better drawer of the crowds.

But Pacquiao cannot ignore Marquez. If there is any boxer who deserves a rematch with Pacquiao, it is Marquez. True, Pacquiao dropped Marquez thrice in the first round the first time they fought. What is equally true also is that Marquez survived to hold Pacquiao to a draw.

In fact, for most people who saw the fight, Marquez would have won had he not lost the first round so badly. After the first round, Marquez countered effectively and gave equal measure to Pacquiao for whatever the Filipino could dish out until the final round.

On the other hand, one judge later admitted having committed a mistake by scoring the first round only 10-9 in favor of Pacquiao when it should have been 10-8 or even less on account of the three knockdowns suffered by Marquez.

But that is water under the bridge. Besides, a couple of points difference on a scorecard would not have allowed Pacquiao to win because points are not added up in scoring professional boxing. A winner by decision is known by how many judges gave the fight to which boxer.

In other words, that fight between Pacquiao and Marquez was too close to call despite the three knockdowns suffered by the latter in the first round. It left a very huge question mark hanging in the air, a question mark that had been left to fester unanswered for many years.

That question was purposely left unanswered because of two things – one definite, the other a possibility. The definite cause for leaving the question unanswered is that Marquez paled in comparison to the capacity of other boxers to bring in the money in a Pacquiao fight. The other possible cause is that Pacquiao avoided Marquez.

Marquez battled Pacquiao to a draw. All things being equal, it was possible he could win the next time around. What Pacquiao faced then was the risk of losing in a rematch that will not bring in as much money as would a fight with more exciting boxers. The decision was clearly a no-brainer.

But now Pacquiao has quite literally swept the table clean of big names except Marquez. He cannot ignore Marquez forever because Marquez is the champion while he is not, despite the “ honorifics” given him as a means for the boxing organizations to make money from title fight sanctioning fees.

So whether Pacquiao moves up to the lightweight division or hangs around for a while in the jr. lightweight division where the big money is, a fight with Marquez should be inevitable. Such a fight should answer one of the biggest questions left hanging in boxing for quite a while.