tantarado wrote:
After learning that the Manny Pacquiao vs. Erik Morales rematch was still on track despite Morales' loss to Zahir Raheem last Saturday, I was flabbergasted.
Just a few months back, Pacquiao signed a 2-year contract with one of the premier managers in boxing today, Shelly Finkel. The two-time BWAA Manager of the Year Award recipient heads a management team that includes two other LA-based lawyers in Keith Davidson and Nicholas Khan. "Between three seasoned lawyers, surely they must have advised their ward not to take this fight", I thought to myself.
Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, is highly regarded as one of the best American trainers in boxing today. He was named Trainer of the Year for 2003 and the biggest names in boxing flock to his Hollywood gym to prepare for their upcoming matches. More importantly, Roach and Pacquiao have a father-son type of relationship nurtured through years of working with each other. From the changes made with Team Pacquiao this year, I think it's fair to say that Manny trusts Freddie's judgement implicitly. If there's anyone who can convince Manny not to take this fight, it would be Freddie. "Surely he must have advised Manny not to take this fight", I thought to myself.
Between all the accolades and awards received by his management team and trainer, you'd think at least one of them would have thought of it. Just by the sheer amount of people surrounding him on a daily basis, surely one of them must have figured it out.
Manny Pacquiao cannot win, if in fact he faces Erik Morales in the ring on January 21. Before you all go "Pedro Fernandez" on me (sorry, I couldn't help it), let me explain myself.
Manny Pacquiao has little to gain and everything to lose in this upcoming match. After Erik Morales' stunning loss to Raheem this past Saturday, one of the HBO commentators put forth an interesting question. Is Erik in the twilight of his boxing career? The question was open-ended presumably because his next match would determine his fate.
Manny Pacquiao has little to gain from this upcoming match because if he does defeat Morales, most people would attribute it to the fact that Erik was not at the top of his game anymore. A win for Pacquiao wouldn't necessarily mean a considerable move up anybody's pound for pound list. It certainly wouldn't do much for his boxing reputation to beat a fighter whose career is in a downward slope. His marketability wouldn't gain sizeable ground either.
Meanwhile, I shudder to think what would happen if Manny loses. I'm sure his future fight purses would suffer as a consequence of a loss. But that's probably the least of his problems at that point.
There's almost no upside and so much downside to this, I'm shocked that no one has talked Manny out of fighting Morales again. I'm sure his management team could have arranged a fight with another boxer where he'd actually get the lion's share of the purse. So it can't be just about the money.
I was beginning to think there was no logic behind it when I suddenly figured it out.
Manny loves the challenge of a good fight. In an age where some boxers have long and lucrative careers while steering clear of fights where there is little upside, Manny would rather fight the tough fights. Irregardless of what it might do to his reputation, he loves to go up against the toughest boxers and no one will convince him otherwise. The notion sends shivers up my spine. It's almost...heroic.
It occurred to me that this is precisely why so many people have been following his career so closely. No wonder they call him the people's champ!
You have some valid points here. But i disagree, EM is not near the twilight of his career or on the brink of it. They have to do it again to finally settle the score. The lost of EM to Zahir was just a wake up call for eric to come out of his senses. This is like Pac vs MAB, whereas MAB was caught off-guard and was beatan by pac but able to beat Ayala and EM to bounce back from where he is today. Still Pac vs EM is a very interesting fight to turn our backs from.