Manny Pacquiao: Boxing Needs Pacquiao vs. Marquez III to Live Up to the Hype

A couple days from now, Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez are going to settle some unfinished business.

If you believe the hype, this is the grudge match to end all grudge matches. The first fight between Pac-Man and Marquez ended in a draw. The second resulted in a split decision in favor of Pacquiao.

Indications are that the third and final fight between these two will end more definitively. We will know, once and for all, who is the better boxer: Manny Pacquiao or Juan Manuel Marquez.

As awesome as all of this sounds, though, it is certainly possible that the fight could end up being a huge disappointment.

The key danger, I think, is that one of the fighters in the ring on Saturday night will just be totally overmatched.

Conventional wisdom suggests that Marquez will be the overmatched party, as he is six years older than Pac-Man and not nearly as experienced at welterweight. Conventional wisdom also suggests that Marquez never was Pac-Man's equal to begin with. Though Marquez fought him tough in their first two bouts, people love to point out that Pac-Man should have won the first fight, and that he should therefore be 2-0 against Marquez. People also love to point out that Pac-Man has evolved greatly as a fighter in recent years.

If you can accept all of this as gospel, there's no escaping the feeling that Marquez is more or less doomed. He has his heart set on beating the world's best pound-for-pound boxer, but he could just end up receiving a beating instead.

No doubt that would please the Pac-Man faithful, but a brutal beatdown would fall short of Pac-Man's promise (see the Los Angeles Times) that we are about to see "the fight of the year."

If, for whatever reason, this fight doesn't live up to its lofty billing, it's going to be a disaster for the sport of boxing in general. Make no mistake, boxing needs this fight to live up to the hype.

The primary reason for this is because Pac-Man is by far boxing's biggest draw. It's not every day boxing grabs hold of the sports headlines, but a Pacquiao fight always does the trick. 

Nevertheless, Pac-Man's more recent fights against Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley were less than thrilling. This is especially true of the Mosley fight, which was an embarrassment.

These fights gave boxing a chance to showcase an all-star fighter, but they were not all-star fights. Any more of these, and it's possible that people will start to lose interest.

Saturday's bout is supposed to be different. If there is any justice in this world, the third bout between Pac-Man and Marquez will be just as exciting as the first two, in which case it most definitely would be the fight of the year.

Anything less just won't cut it.