Mayweather and Marquez: Justified in Avoiding Manny Pacquiao?

By just casually following the natural flow of headlines in boxing, it would appear that eight-division world champ Manny Pacquiao is one of the most feared elite-level fighters in the business-- at least in terms of being unable to land certain high-profile fights his team appears to be pursuing.

Everyday there is at least one story about Pacquiao being unable to wrangle a huge money fight he craves. These fruitless efforts on Manny’s part always involve the same two high profile names-- Floyd Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez. The number of “Why won’t he fight Pacquiao” articles involving Mayweather and Marquez is amazing and, correctly or not, paints the picture of two major boxers doing everything in their power to never fight Manny.

To be fair, the 41-year-old Mexican, Marquez, has already faced Pacquiao four times and has proven himself to be highly competitive with the Filipino icon in the worst of times and a KO conqueror over Manny in the best of times.

Officially, Marquez is 1-2-1 in those four bouts with Pacquiao, but that is a point of contention for many Marquez supporters and, likely, the main reason a fifth bout has been so hard to put together.

Marquez truly feels that he could easily be 4-0 if not for corrupt boxing politics played out to Pacquiao’s advantage. The perfectly-timed, face-first knockout of Pacquiao, which came in 2012 (in the most recent of their encounters), serves as the perfect, righteous ending to the series in Marquez’s eyes and has given him the strength to turn down truckloads of money for a part five.

Meanwhile, Floyd Mayweather, has his own set of reasons why Pacquiao is not a viable opponent.

First turned away by Team Pacquiao’s refusal to bend on blood testing terms, Team Mayweather has recently balked at the idea of having to negotiate with Pacquiao on even terms when Floyd has clearly passed Manny in PPV sales.

Mayweather has publicly insisted on Pacquiao ditching promoter Bob Arum and either signing with Mayweather Promotions or offering the company some options on future fights in order to even consider the risk of taking Mayweather-Pacquiao. Most would consider this an unreasonable demand from Mayweather. However others would argue that options on future fights are frequently bartered during contract negotiations.

So, the reasons are there for Marquez and Mayweather to keep Pacquiao on the outside. Whether we can consider them valid, though, is another story.

In the meantime, Pacquiao’s career twists in the wind. Unable to land his two toughest challenges, he must continue to fight opposition many feel is beneath him.