Last year, when Floyd Mayweather announced that his first fight back from retirment would be against Juan Manuel Marquez, fans questioned the legitimacy of a bout featuring a fighter moving up from lightweight to challenge a naturally bigger man at welterweight. Nevermind the fact that Manny Pacquiao had already proved the naysayers wrong by doing essentially the exact same thing against Oscar De La Hoya, the general consensus was that there was no way Marquez would be competitive against the bigger, stronger Mayweather. On September 19, 2009, that opinion proved to be correct when Mayweather easily defeated Marquez, dropping him in the second round and thorougly dominating the action over the course of 12 rounds en route to a unanimous decision. The bout was so lopsided that Marquez was only able to land a total of 69 punches. Despite the fact that Mayweather is considered to be a defensive wizard inside of the ring, many fans and experts alike attributed the poor performance by Marquez to the fact that he was simply too small for his skills to make up for the size differential. Given that knowledge, I can't help but wonder why anyone would think that Marquez, who just returned to the lightweight division to successfully defend his titles against Juan Diaz, could actually be competitive in a third bout with Manny Pacquiao, who's made a permanent home in the welterweight division.
The last time Juan Manuel Marquez stepped into a ring with Manny Pacquiao, on March 15, 2008, he was defeding his WBC super featherweight title. For those that may not realize it, the super featherweight division has a maximum weight limit of 130 pounds. Since that time, Manny Pacquiao has continued to move up in weight, getting bigger and stronger along the way as he continues to defeat fighters that have a natural size advantage. After winning the razor-thin decision over Marquez in 2008, Pacquiao moved up to lightweight (135 pounds) to defeat David Diaz, jr. welterweight (140 pounds) to defeat Ricky Hatton, and welterweight (147 pounds) to defeat Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey. In fact, in his next bout, Pacquiao is slated to face Antonio Margarito for the WBC jr. middleweight title. Although the bout will take place at a catchweight of 150 pounds, the fact remains that Manny Pacquiao is no longer a small fighter. Meanwhile, Marquez, for the most part, has remained at lightweight, having only fought higher than 135 pounds just one time, the disasterous loss to Floyd Mayweather at 147 pounds.
With that said, I have to wonder if Marquez can truly be considered a legitimate opponent for Pacquiao, who's become quite comfortable with fighting as a welterweight, if he wasn't considered a legitimate opponent for Mayweather. More importantly, can fans really expect Marquez to be competitive with Pacquiao at the higher weight when he was already thoroughly dominated by Mayweather? If the answer is yes, then what does that have to say about Pacquiao's chances against Mayweather? If the answer is no, then what does that say about Golden Boy Promotions, who seem perfectly content with pitting their lightweight champion against much bigger opposition?