Marquez Turned Down
Earlier this year Juan Manuel Marquez announced his official retirement from boxing. Him along with guys like Miguel Cotto, Andre Ward, Wladimir Klitschko and of course Floyd Mayweather all called it quits this year.
Those are five names that is synonymous with the sport of boxing inthe new century. Addthe names Bernard Hopkins and Manny Pacquiao and you would have arguablythe seven most noticeable names in the sport this century.
Severalof these names got in there and mixed it up for the biggest fights as well. The most of course being Marquez and Pacquiao as those two sharedthe ring together four times with the first three being very close as the first ended in a draw and Pacquiao winningthe 2nd and 3rd by split-decision and majority decision respectively.
The fourth fight however didn’t go so well for team Pacquiao as Marquez delivered a highlight reel knockoutinthe 6th round that night a little over 5yearsago in Las Vegas.
Almost immediately following that fourth fight Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum started trying to secure a fifth bout. It never materialized however but not from lackof effort on their side.
It has been Marquez that has showed no interest whatsoeverin making a fifth fight. He has maintained sincethe beginning that it wasn’t about money but instead honorand pride.
While most understand there’s still fighters that have the “old school” mentality but we couldn’t help but think to ourselves “yeah sure, as soon as the money is right we’ll see a fifth fight”. Obviously we were wrong as Marquez recently revealed that he turned down an offer of over$100million for the fight.
“There was an offer for a fifth fight against Pacquiao in the Philippines for$100million dollars, and I refused in order to keep my honor and the glory of the fourth fight from 2012,” said Marquez in an interview with ESPN Deportes.
Marquez went on to explain that a$100million would not be enough to repair the damage if he took a fifth fight and was robbed or seriously hurt in Pacquiao’s backyard.
“It’s a lot of money – but honor, pride and what we did is more important than doing a fifth fight. Let’s pretend that the fifth fight would happen. How about if I get robbed in the fight, we do not know what can happen, he’s capable of hitting me with the right shot and hurting me badly. So I would place myself at risk. The glory and what we did in 2012 is worth more than that amount they were offering,” Marquez said.
The win in the last fight is looked at by many in Mexico has one of the biggest wins ever for their country and Marquez never had any intentions of risking that being forgotten. Honor and glory uh? Wow what a concept….
By: Chris ‘Bone’ Henderson
Good read. Informative and to the point. Will be checking these articles out more often.