Top Rank president Bob Arum has made no secret of his desire to pair Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez for a fifth time in November with Pacquiao's WBO welterweight belt on the line, but Marquez's longtime trainer Nacho Beristain wants no part of it.
"I will do everything possible to prevent Juan Manuel Marquez from stepping in the ring with Pacquiao for a fifth time," Beristain said. "If it were up to me, he would not do a fifth fight." Marquez has made it very clear he wants a title in a fifth weight class, but if his trainer has it his way it won't come via Pacman. "I know the desire of Juan Manuel Marquez and myself, to conquer a [world title in a] fifth division, but it should not be against Pacquiao," he said.
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Marquez himself has expressed reluctance to take that bout in the recent past, saying he preferred to close the book on his rivalry with his 2012 knockout. Marquez has long felt that he was jobbed out of his previous fights by the judges, and that the fourth bout was a true representation of his superiority to Pacquiao.
Money could also factor in to the problems of making Pacquiao vs. Marquez V. Beristain has already indicated it would require a major payday for the match to happen, and prior to fighting Mike Alvarado he said Marquez's performance vs. "Mile High" would make a difference in his future asking price. Marquez then went out and battered Alvarado, even knocking him down at one point, so it stands to reason he'll want to see the cash.
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His biggest career payday came in his most recent Pacquiao fight, in which he netted $6 million to Manny's $20 million-plus. Finally, legacy comes into play. Shutting his rivalry with Manny via knockout looks fantastic on the final resume, and Beristain said he has "nothing to prove.
"People will remember him for what he's done in his career, for giving people big fights, for having faced the best of his time." The other titleholders at 147 lbs. are Floyd Mayweather Jr., Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman (interim WBA belt) and Amir Khan.
A common theme among those fighters is that they ply their trade on Showtime, while Marquez is an HBO man. If a title is his goal, Manny may be his only hope.
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