Pacquiao vs Marquez: What a Victory Would Do for Marquez's Legacy

Juan Manuel Marquez will finally get another shot at taking down Manny Pacquiao, in the judges eyes. He has already beat Pacquiao twice in his own eyes.  Technically, he came away from the two previous fights with a draw and a split decision loss, but both fights were so back and forth that many have scored Marquez as the winner of each.

Marquez comes into this fight at age 38 and won't likely have many more fights in the future.  His career is winding down, but he has still gathered some pretty impressive wins over the last few years.  Beating Pacquiao on Saturday night would be an extreme boost for his legacy, which is already a remarkable one.

Marquez has been fighting since 1993 when he was 19 years old.  Over the years he has amassed a record of 53-5-1 and has held world titles in the featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight divisions.  A win against Pacquiao would give him a title in a fourth weight class.

Ever since raising the WBO NABO Featherweight title in 1997, Marquez has fought with titles on the line 26 times in those 40 fights.  Considering Marquez has been entrenched in constant title bouts his 53 wins in 59 fights is really notable.

Does he need to beat Pacquiao to put his legacy over the edge?  I don't believe so.  Manny Pacquiao will go down as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters boxing has ever seen. 

That means win, lose, or draw, as long as it is another 12 round battle in this third fight, Marquez will be remembered as battering Pacquiao on three occasions and really giving him a run for his money is him prime. 

He will also be remembered for fighting Pacquiao in three different divisions during Pacquiao's journey through winning world titles in eight divisions to solidify his pound-for-pound dominance.  If Marquez can give another gutsy performance on Saturday, his legacy will speak for itself, especially if he can slug it out in the welterweight division similarly to how he did with Pacquiao previously. 

If he were to win, though, he would then hold lightweight and welterweight titles and retire on top.  If he wanted to, that is.  He would have a lot of fights available to him if he were to withstand another barrage from Pacquiao and come out victorious. 

Still, he doesn't need to beat Pacquiao to prove anything for his legacy, but a win would put it over the top.  It would finally check off that missing link in his mind at least.