Pacland's Philippine Boxing Forum • View topic - ***Exposing Juan Manuel Marquez...***
Why do people want to see a Pacquiao vs Marquez fight?
Answer: To see who's the better man of the two.
But we've seen three fights already and what did we see?... right, the same thing over and over again. Why? Have either fighter made any changes to try to out do the other? As far as Pacquiao is concern, I believe and everyone else know for a fact that Manny improved a lot since their first fight. But How about Juan Manuel Marquez? I think he did as well but not that much. I think Marquez only improved a little especially on his head movement.
But how come despite the improvement on Manny compared to his other fights with other fighters, his fight with JMM always ends up almost the same? This is on the premise that our eyes are strictly focused on Pacquiao. But if we try to take a look at Marquez' fights and analyze, what do we see and notice that will give us clue on why their trilogy always ends up a close fight?
As far as Pacquiao's other fights are concern, I believe that we can all agree that he made a huge difference from before and now. Even when he fights JMM I think we can all agree that of the two, Pacquiao is the one who's really trying hard to make a difference to make something happen by being always the aggressor and initiating the action. Marquez on the other hand, if we compare his previous fights, I think the key to this enigma is his fight against a superb counter puncher Chris John. That fight was also a close fight and Chris John won a decision.
What does this mean? This means that Marquez is only effective against all forward all aggressive careless fighter. Because his style is merely to wait for his opponent to make mistake when coming forward. Other than that, when he encounters a superb and careful counter puncher like Chris John and Pacquiao, his ability to win with his style greatly diminishes. But usually ends up a close fight because of the nature of "play safe" kind of style. The only difference between Chris John and Pacquiao is that Pacquiao can also be a good attacker at the same time.
However, the reason why Pacquiao can't attack Marquez the way he do against other non-superb-counter punchers is because Marquez' combination of counter punches naturally neutralizes the combination of any attackers which therefore minimizes the effectiveness of any combination of any good attackers. This is why we always see Pacquiao ending up doing just single punching or 1-2 combination on Marquez.
This illusion makes people think that since Pacquiao can't do what he usually does against other fighters with Marquez, it makes Marquez like a great fighter because he seemed like the only guy who can give Pacquiao a close fight. But if we try to understand, what does Marquez do to really beat Pacquiao?... NOTHING. Against a careful counter puncher like Pacquiao and Chris John, he almost can't really do anything else unless his opponent tries to keep on coming forward so he can score.
Conclusion: Based on the above, this is the clear reason why no matter how many times both fighters (Pac vs JMM) fights, it will always be the same. As long as Marquez keeps being a counter puncher and does not decide to really engage Pacquiao head on, it will always be a close fight. Worse, I don't think Marquez will ever try to be an aggressor against Pacquiao, because he learned it the hard way in their 1st 2 fights that Pacquiao is so good a knock down artist that he can't afford to be knocked down again and lose. The best that Marquez can do is to make an illusion that he is the better fighter by just limiting Pacquiao's abilities to attack. But in reality, he can't do anything to really beat Pacquiao such as to KO him, knock him down, or clearly lopsidedly out punch him to make a difference. Marquez would always want a rematch only for the hopes that during the course of their fight, Pacquiao would make an amateur mistake. But Pacquiao is way past that level if he thinks Pacquiao will commit such kind of mistake.