Manny Pacquiao‘s return to professional boxing has set off alarm bells in the boxing world, especially among promoters who see in him an opportunity to revive legendary fights. One of the names most often mentioned to accompany him in this idea is Juan Manuel Marquez, his eternal rival, with whom he starred in one of the most intense rivalries in recent boxing history.
But Marquez does not share that enthusiasm. In an interview with Izquierdazo, he was clear about his position:
They’ve told me they want to do an exhibition, but do you think it’s going to be an exhibition with him? It’s never going to be an exhibition… We’re going to kill each other, better leave it at that
The former Mexican boxer considers it impossible to contain the intensity that both have shown in the ring, even in a supposedly consequence-free format.
Juan Manuel Marquez believes he won all four fights against Manny Pacquiao
Between 2004 and 2012, Marquez and Pacquiao faced each other in four memorable fights, with official results of two victories for the Filipino, a draw and a victory for the Mexican. However, all of them were surrounded by controversy because of the judges’ decisions. Juan Manuel still maintains that he was superior in each of the fights and that his knockout in the fourth fight was definitive proof:
That was my way of confirming what I always believed: that I won all four
The KO in December 2012, in the sixth round, ended the saga of fights between the two. Since then, Marquez has turned down million-dollar offers for a fifth fight. The Mexican believes he has nothing more to prove, as his legacy was sealed with that right hand that knocked Pac-Man down in front of the world.
“It was luck,” says Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez does not move
Years after the knockout, Manny Pacquiao has not let his version of what happened be seen. In a recent interview with Fight Hub TV, the Filipino minimized the outcome of that fight:
He was lucky. I was about to finish him in that round. If it wasn’t in that one, it would be in the next one. I got careless and he gave me a lucky direct hit
But for Marquez, that “luck” was the result of years of preparation, strategy and accumulated frustration. With that history behind him, the idea of a simple “exhibition” between the two becomes unrealistic. There is no stage, no purse, no format that can turn that rivalry into something light. That’s why, at least on the Mexican’s part, the answer is already in, closing that chapter because if it were to be reopened it would be a war and not a show.
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