Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Michael Katsidis
The Main Event of the evening is a lightweight showdown between legendary Mexican boxer Juan Manuel Marquez vs. tough Greek-Australian slugger Michael Katsidis. Marquez is already looking onto a future fight with his long time rival Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao, but Katsidis is no pushover and always comes to fight, his high pressure style combined with power punching makes Katsidis a very live underdog.
The second bout before the Main Event is the return of undefeated Haitian-American WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto, who had to withdraw from his previous fight with Shane Mosley to help the people of Haiti after they suffered a devastating earthquake that took the lives of many Haitians. Should Berto get past the hard hitting Freddy Hernandez on Saturday night, he becomes a viable opponent in the Manny Pacquiao sweepstakes should Floyd Mayweather Junior not accept a fight with Pacquiao.
The opening bout to start off the evening is a fight between WBA super bantamweight super champion Celestino Caballero versus Jason Litzau at 130-pounds. Caballero has been trying to land fights with the two top featherweight fighters Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez. But he believes the fighters promoters don’t want put him in with either of the undefeated champions because he is too risky an opponent.
- Marquez versus Katsidis.
I guess we shouldn’t bat our eyelashes at anything in boxing anymore. But I was appalled by Bernard Hopkins’ decision to play the race card against Manny Pacquiao in a recent interview where he arbitrarily decided that Pacquiao would lose to an ‘inner city’ black fighter.
Find me one inner city African-American fighter who can even beat one of Pacquiao’s recent opponents, and we might begin to have an intelligent discussion, Bernard.
I think we all realize that Bernard Hopkins is desperately seeking to maintain his relevance among fight fans at the age of 45. And he is also trying to secure a fight for good friend Shane Mosley, but enough already!
When did it become acceptable for a black boxer to stereotype all black boxers, and then use this as bait to secure an unworthy opponent a match against a widely-respected champion who is also considered a minority in this country?
Because that’s exactly what Hopkins is doing.
Now the big question is will Manny Pacquiao sign the contact to fight Marquez for the third time? In their two previous fights either fighter could have reasonably been awarded with the victory. Their first meeting in 2004 year was ruled a draw and Pacman won the rematch in 2008 year by split decision.
However there’s still plenty of debate on whether or not he actually deserved the split decision in their second fight.
After the fight Larry Merchant pointed out that Floyd Mayweather is obviously no where to be found, so a fight with Marquez is the biggest potential purse for Pacquiao right now.
Pacman’s trainer Freddie Roach has said he’s more than willing to put his fighter in with Marquez for a third time. But only if the fight happens at 147lbs. He claims he wouldn’t agree to a catch-weight.
These terms seem reasonable considering Marquez needs Pacquiao more than Pacquiao needs Marquez.
With all that said, the only fighter any boxing fan wants to see Pacquiao fight right now is Floyd Mayweather. If that fight happens then nobody will care if a third fight between the Pacquiao and Marquez ever happens.