Pacquiao vs. Marquez: Pac-Man in Danger as Attention Diverted from Marquez

The one thing that keeps us coming back to the sports world is the promise of an upset, and there would be no bigger upset than if Manny Pacquiao failed to beat Juan Manuel Marquez next weekend. It is all the more likely when you consider the firestorm Pac-Man has had to maneuver past this week. 

Pacquiao has made no secret that he is not taking Marquez lightly. You can see him worry in the hours that he is training and the overtime that he is putting in. 

In short, Pac-Man is killing himself to make sure that an upset is the last thing that happens in this marquee bout of the year. 

However, some news items hitting in the last week may take all of that attention away from Marquez and onto far more meaningless affairs. 

The week started with news that Marquez's trainer, Angel Hernandez, is the trainer that gave banned substances to Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones. A fight that was supposed to be about two men trying to define their legacies revolved around a trainer and his sordid past. 

That paled to the bomb that Floyd Mayweather dropped this week. In an effort to either hype himself or derail Pacquiao, Mayweather announced that he was set to fight Pacquiao on May 5th, 2012. 

The newsflash caused an epic stir in the sports world as the fight we have all craved finally had a date. Of course, we tried to temper our enthusiasm, but the headline was too great not to savor. 

The obvious steps were taken by Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum. He has recently come out and scoffed at the proposed fight. A fight of that magnitude would take months to negotiate, and Mayweather knows that. 

The real reason may have been just to throw another log onto this fight's fire. The last thing Pacquiao needs is to have his attention diverted from a fighter that has all the tools to go the distance with him. 

The hype surrounding the fight has nothing to do with the fight itself—at least for now. With another week to go, things should die down and get back to what really matters, and that's two fighters hell bent on pummeling one another.