Pacland's Philippine Boxing Forum

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.

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Career is on the line.

If Manny loses to eric he can move back down to 126lbs his best weight. There are alot of good fighters juan marquez, oscar larios just to name a couple. Manny gave alot of reasons why he lost morales the first time around i think it all boiled down to overconfidence. Manny has everything to gain by beating morales not much to lose.

Welcome to Pacland Tantarado. Nice post. Its worth reading

Congrats Pacman and Maligayang Pagdating!!!

same here... tarantado you actually sounds like my fav sports writer/analyst keep it up bro

Pacman will win, I know he can do it!Pinoy eh!!!Buo ang aking loob..May agimat ang dugo ko!!!-Pacman Nothing is impossible...with Pacman's courageous heart!!

erik is so fond with pac. every time he loses, he wants to avenge his loss thru pac.
but next time will be a different story.
if em loses this one, he might wanna fight paulie ayala.

It's all about the money!!!

The best money fight for either Morales or PAC is still against each other and thats because you have the synergy of the Mexican and Filipino viewing public.

The next best money fight for whoever wins between Manny vs Erik is against Barrera...that is if he wins against Peden.

Should Manny beat these two legends...Morales & Barrera...who will Manny go up against next that can generate the same promotional interest??? The Mexican public will be watching Manny because he would either be their new champion having beaten their legends or because they would want Manny to loose to anybody to avenge the lose that they will suffer.

Although the rematch has lost some of its luster due to Erik's loss to Zahir, it was by no means a clear indication that Morales has completely gone incapable for Pac's rematch for three reasons. Firstly, Morales still hasn't been knocked out or even knocked down in his career. I surely want to see Pac try to do it, don't you? Secondly, his loss was more like an experimental loss by moving up to 135 lbs. I guarantee you that most Morales fans have this excuse, therefore his fan base is still very well intact. Finally and most importantly, Pac will want to get his revenge, and so will the people. He is not a coward like a Barrera (Yeah, I said it), he is warrior (like Erik) who is willing to fight anyone. A quote from the great late rapper 2pac applies here:

" Revenge is like the sweetest joy next to gettin' pu$$y"

Yeah! I was able to read this article. But I also read another article that EM mentioned that if he beats Raheem, he would be fighting the winner of CORRALES-CASTILLO rematch. im sorry I was able to save the link for this particular article.

I believe that Manny has nothing to gain with this rematch with EM. For me, it will be much better if our PAC will challenge BARRERA (if he beats PEDEN) for a rematch.

My question is, what will be PACMAN'S career if he loses once again to EM?

PEACE!

i agree on the thing that he should not fight eric, for the mean time, coz eric lost, let him earn his rematch, i suggest pacman would go for a title to add to his name, would you think they gonna give pacman a rematch if he had lost, i dont think so. on the matter of pacquiao not having a chance against eric, he can beat eric... that i assure, by KO.

After watching Pac's recent fight, sadly i dont think he could beat Erik especially now since most of them know how to fight Manny. Even JMM would beat MP by UD.

manny can beat eric, and jmm? are you kidding me, jmm chikened out remember? manny`s a fighter, just wait for the rematch....