Juan Manuel Marquez enlists doctors for Pacquiao battle -- Examiner

By Ricardo Lois, Examiner.com

With a November 12 battle against Manny Pacquiao announced for a catchweight of 144 pounds, lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez will be adding weight to his frame with the help of doctors.

"I will come in at a higher weight than normal," said Marquez, "but I will have doctors monitoring my progress."

The highest Marquez has ever weigh-in for a fight was 142 pounds against Floyd Mayweather, a fight where he was knocked down and lost by a wide unanimous decision on the score cards.

Since that 2008 let down, Marquez weighed in at 133 1/2 and 134 pound for fights with Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis, respectively.

Though Marquez feels he needs to add weight to face Pacquiao - whose average weigh-in has been 145 pounds for his last fights, mainting speed is a focus.

"Matching Pacquiao's speed and rhythm are key," said Marquez. "The doctors I work with will help me maintain my speed."

This will be the third bout between Marquez and Pacquiao, with Pacquiao owning a win and both men sharing a draw.

Source: examiner.com

Freddie Roach gets show on HBO -- ESPN

By Dan Rafael, ESPN.com

Star boxing trainer Freddie Roach is used to having cameras follow him around when he is preparing pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao for fights.

Now, he will take center stage as the star of a new six-episode unscripted primetime series, "On Freddie Roach," which is slated to debut in early 2012 on HBO.

Pacquiao has been the subject of multiple editions of HBO's "24/7" as well as the recent "Fight Camp 360" on Showtime while getting ready to fight Shane Mosley earlier this month. Roach was a big part of those series, but still a supporting player.

This series, announced Tuesday, includes filmmaker Peter Berg and HBO blow-by-blow announcer Jim Lampley among its executive producers. It will focus on Roach and his daily life working with fighters at his Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, Calif., as well as his daily battle with Parkinson's disease.

"I am used to it," Roach told ESPN.com about having the cameras around him constantly. "Pretty much the same deal as '24/7' and 'Fight Camp' with cameras there at 5 a.m. and waking me up. They have the keys to my house to get in.

"It's going to be my life at home and mostly everything in the gym leading up to fights. It doesn't bother me having the cameras around. Sometimes it gets overwhelming and if it does, I tell them to go home."

The cameras will follow Roach as he works with his fighters, including Pacquiao, junior welterweight titlist Amir Khan and middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and as he manages his new role working with USA Boxing.

Roach recently accepted an unpaid role with the amateur organization to bring several young fighters to his gym who are leading contenders to make the 2012 U.S. Olympic team.

"They put together a really good idea of people looking into my life from the outside," Roach said. "The thing is it will give people a look at what my life is like. I have a great life and with the Olympic team thing coming up and Manny and Amir having fights, I hope people will find it interesting."

"We are truly excited about this innovative new reality series that will allow HBO to partner with Peter Berg," Michael Lombardo, president of HBO Programming, said. "Freddie Roach is an extraordinary person and many of our subscribers are familiar with his superior work in training some of the world's premier fighters. This will be a fascinating and unique series."

The show began filming about 10 days before Pacquiao's May 7 welterweight title defense against Mosley, which Pacquiao won in a lopsided decision. His next fight is slated for Nov. 12 against rival Juan Manuel Marquez. Khan opened training camp on Monday to prepare for a July 23 title defense. His opponent is expected to be set this week.

"We start filming more of the show this week. They stopped in (Tuesday) to get a look at the gym and see the atmosphere and see who the characters are at my gym. I have some interesting friends," Roach said with a laugh. "This show will give a broader picture of my life and the people I take care of and the people that take care of me. It will be much broader than just getting one fighter ready for a fight. You're not going to catch me at home too often though. The gym will be the focal point of the show."

HBO Sports originally rejected the series and it was picked up by AMC for development. But after creative differences with AMC, HBO got another opportunity and decided to pick it up.

"HBO's enthusiasm in supporting a less-conventional, vérité style of storytelling is why they continue to create original and truly innovative programming," Berg said. "It's why they are the best and we are very excited to be working with them."

Roach, 51, a native of Dedham, Mass., who now lives in Hollywood, was a longtime professional fighter, which many believe is the cause of his Parkinson's. As a trainer, he has worked with numerous champions, and earlier this month he collected his third trainer of the year award in a row -- and fifth overall -- from the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter @danrafaelespn.

Source: sports.espn.go.com

Pacquiao-Marquez III: A Six-Pac Of Signing Subplots -- The Sweet Science

By Eric Raskin, The Sweet Science

Three years ago, on the day after Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez II, I wrote a column for ESPN.com entitled “The Pacquiao-Marquez Postfight Six-Pac.” After tense back and forth discussions and negotiations with myself, I have permitted myself to steal intellectual property from me, and so, now that Pacquiao-Marquez III is officially signed, I’ve put together a prefight “six-Pac” of subplots worth discussing. With Pacquiao vs. Marquez the matchup on everybody’s mind, here are six underlying matchups worth watching for in the weeks and months ahead:

1. Size vs. Style

This is what’s at the root of the debate currently taking over the blogosphere/podcast-o-sphere/message-board-o-sphere: Is this a competitive fight or a mismatch? If you’re championing it as a competitive fight (as I am, more or less), you’re basing that on the belief that Marquez has proven his style gives Pacquiao fits, and it’s a style unlike anything Pac-Man has seen since his one-point split decision over JMM in ’08. If you’re decrying it as a mismatch, you’re basing that on the belief that Pacquiao has outgrown Marquez since their last fight and, at a contract weight of 144 pounds, Pacquiao will be at his most effective and “Dinamita” will be at his least effective.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’d rather have seen the fighters agree to meet at 140, a weight I firmly believe Manny can still make (since his team has repeatedly insisted he has to trap several pounds of food in his moustache and goatee just to tip the scales at 145). But to me, it’s more about what Marquez weighs than what Pacquiao weighs. Marquez, regardless of the contract weight, should still train to be about 135 pounds or so—in shape, comfortable, no spare tire like we saw against Floyd Mayweather. The better condition Marquez is in, the quicker he’ll be, and the more he can offset whatever poundage he’s giving away.

This is an unusual situation in that almost nobody is picking Marquez to win, but many of us endorse the fight anyway. Perhaps we’ve just been beaten down by the parade of matches (Josh Clottey, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley) for which you couldn’t find anyone at all picking against Pacquiao. But what I see here is an opponent who, at any weight, knows how to time and hit Pacquiao. Yes, it’s possible the size difference will influence each man’s ability to take the other’s punch. It’s possible Pacquiao will blow Marquez out, as he nearly did in their first meeting seven years ago. But whatever the outcome, I want to see Pacquiao face someone with a style that isn’t made to order. Marquez MIGHT give Pacquiao fits again. That’s good enough to get me supporting Pacquiao-Marquez III.

2. HBO vs. Showtime

This will be a fascinating behind-the-scenes battle, and the roles are very different now: Showtime is the incumbent, and the onus is on HBO to blow Bob Arum away with a marketing package that outdoes what Showtime and CBS can do. HBO’s parent company, Time Warner, does not own any of the “big four” free networks. But it owns TNT and TBS, which are the same as a free network to any household that would ever consider ordering a pay-per-view fight. It owns CNN and might be able to promise Arum extra news coverage leading up to the Pacquiao-Marquez fight on that channel. It owns Sports Illustrated, which means HBO might be able to guarantee that Pacquiao goes on the cover the week of the fight.

There’s a lot at stake here; without Pacquiao in the fold and without Mayweather in anybody’s fold, HBO is in danger of going the entire year without a major moneymaker on pay-per-view. Ross Greenburg and company will be bending over backward to please, while Ken Hershman and company will be equally motivated to hold onto the biggest star in the sport and put their competitors in a world of hurt. Pacquiao vs. Marquez MIGHT be a two-way slugfest; HBO vs. Showtime definitely WILL be.

3. Top Rank vs. Golden Boy

Even those who weren’t excited to see Pacquiao-Marquez III consummated expressed delight over Lance Pugmire’s report in the L.A. Times that Arum met face to face with Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions (to politely pry Marquez away from him) and that the meeting ended “in a burst of goodwill, with handshakes.”

Look, Top Rank doesn’t need Golden Boy all that badly right now. But GBP could greatly benefit from matching some of its fighters against Top Rank’s and eventually getting its finger in the Pacquiao pie again. So Schaefer, intelligently, let Marquez go without kicking up much of a fuss. (Well, he kicked up a little fuss initially, but rolled over in the end.) If Top Rank and Golden Boy start working together again, as Arum said he expects they will, it’s a huge victory for both promotional companies and for the fight fans.

And, not to set everyone up for disappointment by being overly optimistic, but if that Mayweather guy ever decides he wants to risk his perfect record against Pacquiao and make $40-million or so to do it, this would be one less obstacle to stand in the way of the fight the world has been demanding for the last two years.

4. Juan Manuel Marquez vs. David Diaz

This is a tough one to wrap my head around. Why exactly would Marquez risk blowing his $5-million (at least) payday with a keep-busy fight against Diaz on July 2? If something goes wrong here, it ends the 18-year reign of Michael Bentt-Tommy Morrison as the go-to example of a tuneup-turned-tragedy. And it’s not impossible for something to go wrong here. Ninety-eight times out of 100, JMM whips Diaz with all the bones removed from his hands and his feet tied together. But one time out of 100, Marquez gets a nasty cut from a clash of heads. And one time out of 100, Diaz catches him with the perfect punch.

For fans of symmetry, perhaps it’s pleasing that the very same tuneup opponent Pacquiao butchered after the second Marquez fight will be presented to Marquez three years later. But for fans of sanity, it’s shocking that Marquez-Diaz could actually happen. There are ways to stay sharp by simulating a fight in the gym while wearing headgear and not taking any chance of suffering an official defeat. But if Marquez vs. Diaz goes forward, it’s a tuneup that the boxing world will be watching nervously and intently.

5. Urine vs. Steroids

These serve as a diversion from some of the serious subplots, and it can’t be denied that we’ll hear plenty about both of these substances entering the fighters’ bodies over the next few months. You can’t build to a Marquez fight anymore without acknowledging that the man likes to get his drinkle on. (Do I get credit for that one on UrbanDictionary.com?) And as we’ve sadly come to learn, every phony story about Pacquiao ’roiding up will create a hurricane of interest and retweeting from his detractors.

Throughout the buildup to Pacquiao-Marquez III, we will see/hear/read about what these fighters are or aren’t putting into their bodies. One will be unimportant and will serve to amuse and entertain. The other will be highly important and will serve to stir up fabricated controversy.

And it’s probably only a matter of time until an unnamed source blogs about how he watched Manny shoot up, then pee into a cup, then Marquez drank the pee and got juiced up himself. Let the reckless tweeting begin.

6. Floyd Mayweather vs. Anybody

The sixth subplot of this six-Pac was supposed to be Timothy Bradley vs. Amir Khan, a fight that, a few days ago, looked like it was poised to come together now that Bradley’s dream of fighting Pacquiao in the fall had been dashed by the Pacquiao-Marquez signing. So I wrote a few staggeringly brilliant paragraphs about this battle for undisputed junior welterweight supremacy. And then Bradley took his reputation for doing damage by using his head to a new level. Instead of relying on his fighter’s instinct and signing for the fight, he found a way to convince himself he has better options. I’m pretty sure he’s wrong, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Instead, the discussion turns to the name that lurks in the background of every Pacquiao fight. The Pacquiao vs. Mayweather talk hasn’t slowed down—at least not among the mainstream observers and general sports show talking heads—and the rumor mill will churn over the next few months as to whether and when Mayweather will fight again. Pacquiao-Marquez III is still almost six months away; will Floyd fight in the interim? In terms of a possible opponent, the name that keeps popping up is Paul Spadafora. (You know, because Pito Cardona isn’t available and Stefano Zoff wants too much money.)

Whether he takes a tuneup, a real fight, or no fight at all, Mayweather’s name will swim about the Pacquiao-Marquez proceedings. It’s a constant subplot.

Maybe the Vegas casinos will even post lines on whether “Money” will fight again this year. If they do, look for Mayweather to place bets on both sides. It seems he hasn’t made his mind up yet, and he’s going to want to be able to show us the winning ticket either way.

Eric Raskin can be contacted at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can follow him on Twitter @EricRaskin and listen to new episodes of his podcast, Ring Theory, at http://ringtheory.podbean.com.

Source: thesweetscience.com

Roach Says Juan Manuel Marquez Has Given Manny Problems Like No Other -- The Sweet Science

By Ron Borges, The Sweet Science

It has been too long in coming and so you have to wonder if it’s too late getting here, even though short of one other possibility it’s the only fight most people want to see Manny Pacquiao in.

With the stalemate between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. dragging on into its third year, promoter Bob Arum announced as expected last week that he’d reached agreement with Juan Manuel Marquez for a Nov. 12 showdown with Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas that would complete boxing’s best trilogy since Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti retired.

Marquez is the one fighter who has given Pacquiao fits, his style sometimes mesmerizing him and often leading him into traps where trouble brewed. The result has been two controversial endings, the first a 2004 draw when both were featherweights and the second a 2008 split decision for Pacquiao when they fought as 130-pound junior lightweights.

In both cases many observers felt Marquez deserved the win, most especially in their remarkable first fight in which Pacquiao dropped Marquez three times in the opening round but didn’t win three minutes of the rest of the fight as the remarkably resilient and resourceful Marquez not only fought his way back into the fight but to the point where, in this corner at least, it seemed his hand should have been raised.

The second fight was nearly as debatable, although a stronger case could be made for Pacquiao that time even though it didn’t seem from this corner that he’d done enough to win. Or rather, to be fair, it seemed that once again Marquez had done more to win.

That three long years have passed between their last meeting and this one does not bode well for Marquez, however, because while he has remained a lightweight, Pacquiao has blossomed into a full-fledged welterweight who has seemingly retained all the speed and power he brought to the lighter weight divisions while losing nothing, including any fights since adding another 15 pounds.

Equally concerning is the fact Marquez will be 38 by the time they touch gloves (message of Shane Mosley: they’ll only once, and barely) and go at each other a third time. Marquez remains in good shape and still among the most skilled fighters in the world but there have been clear signs of slippage in him that have not been evident in the 32-year-old Pacquiao.

He was badly beaten by Mayweather in his only previous foray into the welterweight division – where to be honest he looked under-sized and over-matched – and has been dropped by Michael Katsidis before giving him a schooling in a TKO victory. One could excuse the Mayweather loss because he may still be the best fighter in the world and one could argue he came back strong to stop Katsidis, stopped the somewhat faded Joel Casamayor and twice beat up Juan Diaz since losing that split decision to Marquez so whatever slippage occurred has been slight.

That may be true but any slippage against a fighter as strong, quick and aggressive as Pacquiao could prove fatal for Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KO), especially since he will be forced to fight at a catchweight of 144 pounds.

What that weight means is that Pacquiao is giving away nothing. Despite the fact the welterweight division has a 147-pound limit, he seldom gets much above 143 so he will not be dieting down. Meanwhile Marquez will have to come up nine pounds from the 135 he’ll fight in July when he defends the WBA and WBO lightweight titles he holds against former champion David Diaz. Coincidentally, that’s the same Diaz Roach saw as the turning point for Pacquiao.

Yet other than Mayweather is there another fighter fans would rather see Pacquiao face? Zab Judah? Timothy Bradley? Selcuk Aydin? Mike Jones? No, no, 1000 times no.

Some floated the idea of Pacquiao moving up to middleweight to challenge Sergio Martinez but trainer Freddie Roach quickly squelched that idea as, to be kind, ridiculous because of the size difference (five inches in height, eight inches in reach, true middleweight vs. junior welterweight at best). That left Mayweather, Marquez and everyone else and with Mayweather still seemingly semi-retired and everyone else of little interest to the public the logical challenge is Marquez, who has always felt he won both of their encounters and didn’t get the decisions only because of the greater power of Pacquiao’s celebrity.

Whatever the truth or not of that, even Roach concedes no one has given Pacquiao the kind of problems Marquez has in the past.

“One hundred per cent,’’ Roach said when asked if he believed Marquez had given Pacquiao more problems than anyone he’d faced since Erik Morales beat him six years ago when he was a one-armed and one dimensional fighter.

“Marquez is a difficult fighter. Very skilled. Very steady. Very resourceful. But my fighter is a better fighter now than he was then. Manny could only move in one direction and he only punched with the right hand then.

“The (David) Diaz fight (which came immediately after the second Marquez fight) was the turning point. Everything started to fit together. In the Oscar fight it all did. Marquez is a tough guy. A great fighter. But Manny is a better fighter than he was before.’’

Depending on how you look at the outcome of those fights two fights and the ravages of age and size on Juan Manuel Marquez, he may have to be.

Source: thesweetscience.com

Manny Pacquiao May Not Like Condoms, But Why Punish Filipino Women? -- UN Dispatch

By Mark Leon Goldberg, UN Dispatch

Manny Pacquiao is a championship boxer from the Philippines. “Pac Man,” as he is affectionately known, is arguably the most popular Filipino around the world. Boxing fans love the prize fighter for his agility and the ease with which he has taken down some tough, established opponents. At home, he has harnessed his fame in a political career as a member of parliament.

He’ a very exciting boxer. He also, apparently, has extremist views on contraception.

God said, ‘Go out and multiply.’ He did not say, just have two or three kids,” Pacquiao said.

“It’s sinful to use condoms and commit abortion,” he said and when questioned about overpopulation said “my parents were poor… they had four children, it was very difficult but we persevered.”

He uttered those words in the midst of a big national debate over whether or not the Philippines parliament (of which Pacquiao is a member) should adopt a national reproductive health bill. That bill, which is being championed by Prime Minister Benigno Aquino, would provide for sexual education in schools and would increase public access to contraception and other reproductive health services.

A reproductive health bill is something that the Philippines could use. The Philippines has an adolescent fertility ratio of 45 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19. For every 100,000 live births in the Philippines, 94 Filipino women die in child birth. The country ranks 47th out of 79 countries on Save The Children’s 2011 State of the World’s Mother’s Index. This makes the Philippines one of the more dangerous places in the world to be a mother.

It is a wonder that so influential a figure as Manny Pacquiao would have such anachronistic views on reproductive health? He may think it’s sinful to use condoms, but why deny others who might not feel the same way? It just goes to show that being a world champion boxer doesn’t prevent you from being a world class something else.

Source: undispatch.com

Pacquiao used steroids? Mosley denies saying that on Twitter -- Yahoo! Sports

By Steve Cofield, Yahoo! Sports

The crazy world of 140 characters. Sarcasm stinks on Twitter and it's very easy to get burned once what looks like a critical statement goes viral. Shane Mosley found that out after his comments about Manny Pacquiao, @sugarshanem, blossomed into what many were labeling a steroid allegation.



Mosley says his Tweet was misunderstood:

"There has been some media coverage recently, stating that I accused Manny Pacquiao of steroid use on Twitter. This is not true. I personally respond to my followers on Twitter, and there was an article sent to me which I Re-tweeted. I did not write the article and did not say that I agree with it. I have defended Manny Pacquiao publicly regarding these type of allegations, stating that they have never been proven true," Mosley told Yahoo! Sports through a P.R. person.


"In our post-fight press conference I told the world that Manny won because he was the better man that night. Manny and I have a mutual respect for one another as true warriors and gentlemen. We both strive to be the best we can be at boxing, as family men, and as humanitarians."

The initial reports were shocking considering the fact that Mosley is working a deal to have Pacquiao's promoter Top Rank Promotions assist him with his new promotion. Bob Arum and Mosley pledged their allegiance shortly after the Pacman fight at the MGM.

Source: sports.yahoo.com