Juan Manuel Marquez’s Weight Issues

As much as I like Juan Manuel Marquez, seeing Manny Pacquaio’s camp, his motivation, the consistent good feelings from his team, make me believe that this fight will be all Pacman. For me, as a fan of both, leaning more towards Marquez, it is sad to be slightly convinced that Marquez is out of the fight. Of course, in boxing and especially with Juan Manuel Marquez, you can never count a man out. Boxing works in mysterious ways. My belief is that although both of them have matured, grown, and developed into different fighters, Pacquaio has the tools to convincingly beat Marquez.

Had Marquez had a tune up fight that lasted more than 30 seconds and more time to adjust to this new weight, I could see this fight being more competitive. Marquez weighed in at 138 in his last fight. I cannot recall the catch-weight for this fight, but I believe that it is Marquez’s biggest crutch. Regardless of your opinion of Pacman’s recent opponents, he has been consistently fighting and walking around at the welterweight limit. He is comfortable training at this weight. He lives at this weight. Marquez lives at 135. He dominates at 135. Not that he does not have the ability to move up and become successful at a higher weight class, Marquez just has not put the time and fights in at the higher weight classes to nullify that advantage of Pacquaio.

Focusing on training plus putting on weight is an issue. Kelly Pavlik is a perfect example of what weight problems can do to a fighter. To make the 160 limit, Pavlik would spend his camp losing weight, draining his body and not getting as effective of training that is needed to compete at the top. I believe that putting on the 6-8 pounds of weight will hinder Marquez.

We will see how Marquez performs as he fights at welterweight for the second time in his career. If I had to put my money down, place it own Pacquaio.