"Marquez fighitng Pacquiao? Come on. I mean, Marquez, at lightweight, he's good, but he's too little [for Pacquiao]. He's too small. He's way too little," commented three-division champion "Sugar" Shane Mosley when asked about his thoughts on a potential third clash between pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao and WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez. Currently vacationing in the Bahamas, Mosley still sounds confident that he's next in line to face the Filipino superstar. "I got that power to crack that chin. I ain't worried about all that other stuff," he continued, stressing that at 147 pounds, Marquez will no longer have the necessary strength and power to be able to deal with Pacquiao.
It's a valid point that Mosley brings up, especially considering that the last two times Marquez faced Pacquiao, he was fortunate to scrape himself off the canvas 4 different times in bouts that took place at Featherweight (126 pounds) and Super Featherweight (130 pounds). Given that Arum has declared that Pacquiao's next fight will indeed take place at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds, it's hard to imagine how Marquez will be able to handle his power in a weight class 2 divisions higher than the one he currently fights in (135 pounds). If his fight last year with Floyd Mayweather is any indication, Marquez will be at a severe disadvantage if he's forced to fight as a welterweight. Weighing in at 142 pounds, he looked slow and sluggish, unable to mount any type of offense (landing just 69 punches) throughout the course of 12 rounds against the naturally bigger Mayweather. With Pacquiao now a full-fledged welterweight, the performance likely wouldn't be that much better.
"Like I said, he just destroyed Margarito and I destroyed Margarito, so it only makes sense that the two guys that destroyed Margarito come together and fight," Mosley would add. "Margarito dusted off everybody else, but he got knocked out by me and he got destroyed by Pacquiao, so it's only right. Styles make fights, so let's see what happens!"
Something tells me that on April 16, 2011, we will get to see what happens.
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