About Pacquio

By Robert Morales
Promoter Bob Arum on Wednesday said that, contrary to one report, he has not completely given up on holding a Nov. 13 fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito in Las Vegas. But he did say the definite front runner to play host is Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.  Arum said he pulled Margarito's request for a license off an Aug. 9 Nevada State Athletic Commission meeting because of logistics, not because he does not want to hold Pacquiao-Margarito there. He said there remains a chance the fight could be held in Sin City. "Yeah, but I would say Cowboys Stadium is the overwhelming favorite," Arum said. The veteran promoter, speaking via telephone from his summer home in Beverly Hills, said it made no sense for him to have Margarito appear again in Nevada next week with an Aug. 18 hearing with the California State Athletic Commission on tap. It was the California commission that revoked Margarito's license after he was caught with plaster inserts in his hand wraps prior to his January 2009 fight with "Sugar" Shane Mosley in Los Angeles. "We just told (Nevada) the California commission had given us Aug. 18 and so there was nothing for them to decide Aug. 9," Arum said.  Margarito went before the Nevada commission last month and by a 4-1 vote, he was told he needed to re-apply in California first before he would be considered for a license in Nevada. Texas has told Arum and Margarito the same thing, but Arum sounded more confident that Texas would actually license Margarito under those circumstances. "I know no matter what California did, the fight would go on in Texas," Arum said. "I'm not sure of anything with the Nevada commission, even if California gave him the license back. I don't know what the hell the commission would do in Nevada. I'm not taking any chances here. "I'm meeting with (Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones a week from today, and if there's a satisfactory deal - which I assume there will be - then we will probably finalize the match. I don't know where the commission in Nevada is coming from, I know where the commission in Texas is coming from. They say once you go to California, then up or down in California, we can give you a license."Marquez Still Going Strong Juan Manuel Marquez this past Saturday showed he remains an outstanding fighter at age 36. With an uppercut that is downright beautiful, there can be no doubt about his final destination - the International Boxing Hall of Fame.The question is, how will the rest of his career play out on his way to Canastota, N.Y.? He has made it known he wants a third fight with Pacquiao. He said that in the days leading to his convincing victory over Juan Diaz at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and immediately afterward."He just can't understand why Pacquiao, if he doesn't have a dance partner, why doesn't he fight him?" Eric Gomez said at Tuesday's news conference in Los Angeles promoting the Sept. 18 fight between Sergio Mora and Mosley at Staples Center. Gomez is matchmaker of Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Marquez."He just can't get it out of his head," Gomez said. "He would love to fight Manny because he feels that he has his number. He feels he just has to make a few adjustments and he'll be able to beat him. I guess we won't know."Well, Pacquiao has a tentative dance partner - Margarito. And Arum, who promotes Pacquiao and Margarito, on Wednesday reiterated what he said to BoxingScene.com's Lem Satterfield, that Marquez would have to prove to him that he can fight successfully at a higher weight the way Pacquiao has before any trilogy can happen."I'm not going to sell a fight to the people I don't truly believe in," Arum said. "I don't believe Marquez is capable of moving up in weight like Manny did and fighting at a higher weight, based on his performance against Floyd Mayweather."Arum said a Marquez victory over Andre Berto, Joshua Clottey, Timothy Bradley or Devon Alexander would give him cause to seriously consider a third fight."He fights one of those guys and beats one of those guys, then it's an easy sell, this third fight, because the first two were very good," Arum said. "Without that, I can't in good faith promote it. If I'm wrong about Marquez and he demonstrates it to me, then he will have demonstrated it to the people and then we would have a hot match."I, for one, didn't get excited over his performance against Diaz. Diaz is a nice kid, but he's a shot fighter. Paulie Malignaggi beat him worse than Marquez did."So, What Then? That leaves Marquez against either junior welterweight champion Amir Khan or Michael Katsidis as the two most feasible fights, especially now that it appears Bradley and Alexander are going to fight each other.  "Amir Khan's still in L.A. and he's going to be honored Saturday on Pakistani Independence Day at Exposition Park in L.A.," said Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, who said he was scheduled to have dinner with Khan this week. "We're going to discuss a little more now that we know who won (between Marquez and Diaz) and what's out there. My understanding is that HBO and Gary Shaw and Don King are very close on finalizing an Alexander-Timothy Bradley fight. So that basically, I think, takes care of that."Schaefer suggested that a lot of what might happen depends on whether Marquez wants to stay at 135 - where he has two lightweight title belts - or move to Khan's 140-pound division. "If he wants to move up to 140, Amir Khan would be the logical opponent," Schaefer said. "If he decides to stay at 135, then, obviously, it's going to be Michael Katsidis."Katsidis is the mandatory challenger for one of Marquez's two belts."The WBO, in fact, informed us today of the negotiating period for a Katsidis-Marquez fight," Schaefer said Tuesday. "If Marquez is not going to fight Katsidis, they're going to strip him." Gomez said that if Marquez is never able to get Pacquiao - with whom he has a draw and a loss - in the ring again, a nice consolation prize would be for Marquez to become the first Mexican national to win world titles in four weight classes. He could accomplish that with a win over Khan. "He has it in his head that he would love to win that fourth world title," Gomez said.Khan-Marquez in The UK? Gomez spoke in hypothetical tones about how big a fight between Marquez and Khan would be in the United Kingdom."He would love to fight Juan Manuel," Gomez said of Khan. "He's willing to fight anybody else. He said Bradley, also. But he's a businessman. He knows that probably Juan Manuel would be more meaningful. It would be more money. Juan Manuel's a legend. In England, he (Khan) thinks that it would be huge. "In the UK, Juan Manuel is well known, just like (Marco Antonio) Barrera was. And he (Khan) feels that Bradley, even though he may be getting a lot of publicity out here, it might not mean as much in the UK."Marquez: Pacquiao faster than Mayweather A few days before dispatching Diaz, Marquez was asked to compare the speed of Pacquiao and Mayweather, both of whom he has fought. "They're both fast," Marquez said. "I think Pacquiao is maybe a little quicker. But Mayweather's defense is incredible."Mora Goes Back To Drawing Board Mosley was asked Saturday in Las Vegas if he noticed that Mora threw a lot of body punches in his stoppage of Calvin Green in April in Las Vegas. He said he did, and that perhaps Mora was maturing a bit and that he was maybe getting tired of hearing all the talk of him having little power. Mora (22-1-1) has six knockouts in 24 fights.Mora's longtime trainer, Dean Campos, on Tuesday was queried about that. He said that indeed, there was a meeting of the minds that led to some changes."That was all by design," Campos said of the body-punching in Mora's seventh-round TKO of Green. "We went back to the gym and pretty much slowed everything down. We looked at the body-punching we wanted to do, the head shots."And I told Sergio, 'Maybe you're not a big one-punch-shot-guy to the head. If you work the body a little bit and bring it up back to the head, you're going to break guys down that way.' There are different ways to skin a cat."Campos said this new plan of attack can only help Mora in the long run."It's going to play a big part and it brings more variety to his game," he said.A victory over Mosley would be big for Mora, Campos said. "Then he can say he beat a real, real tough fighter because everybody knows how tough Mosley is," Campos said. "And when you do something like that, I don't care who you are, you gotta acknowledge it."The roughest fans we have, the biggest haters Sergio has, they're going to have to sit back and say, 'I gotta rethink what I thought about this guy.' "De La Hoya Insists He's Not Coming Back More than one reporter, including this one, has heard that De La Hoya is coming out of retirement. De La Hoya was approached about a potential comeback at last week's workout for Marquez in Hollywood, Calif."I haven't even thought about it or discussed it with anybody," De La Hoya said. "I'm completely, absolutely, positively for sure retired. I maintain myself. I try to keep myself below 165 by running and by doing exercise."I do that because I want to stay in shape, not because I'm coming back. So there's nothing there."Prior to that declaration, Golden Boy's Gomez also assured BoxingScene.com there was nothing to the rumors. He said it was "our job" to make sure De La Hoya stays retired. Interestingly, another Golden Boy executive - who wished to remain anonymous - on Tuesday said he found it curious to hear how often De La Hoya jokes about fighting again at news conferences. He does it at almost every one.The Golden Boy employee said he was starting to wonder if we just might see De La Hoya in the ring again.