• Steve Bunce

'Dreadful' Pacquiao leaves Floyd with a dilemma

Juan Manuel Marquez won his WBO welterweight title fight against Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas at the weekend, there's no doubt about that. He was robbed. I watched it twice, and both times I gave it to Marquez nine rounds to three or possibly eight-four.

Pacquiao, who got the judges' decision, was dreadful. His balance was rubbish, his timing just as bad, and he had no power - but his biggest problem was that he underestimated Marquez. Here's the thing: if you keep reading you're one of the best fighters in the world and Marquez has no right to fight you, you're going to take your eye off the ball.

Marquez is a brilliant boxer - and when he's up against a guy treating a fight like a stroll in the park, everything he does well gets exaggerated. Watching such a laboured performance from Pacquiao, we have to think back to what trainer Freddie Roach has been saying over the last 12 months: Manny's eyes are not on the prize, he's more engaged by politics than he is boxing.

Perhaps we need to consider that maybe this is it for Pacquiao - perhaps the timing's starting to go. I don't like this phrase, but the 'killer instinct' wasn't there either; he was just going through the motions.

Excuses will start to seep out now because Roach can't keep his mouth shut. Pacquiao's team will say the Filipino cut corners, then his promoter Bob Arum will have selective lunches with journalists in which he'll start by saying "between the two of us" - meaning the two of us and however many more read your article - before rolling out sob stories.

But listen, my ear's fairly close to the ground in Vegas, I know enough people. And I'm telling you, hand on heart, not one of the 'experts' told me that Manny looks rubbish, or that he doesn't really want to fight. In fact I heard quite the reverse! Everyone told me Marquez had no chance, that Manny was in the best form of his life.

If someone can find me something written before about 10pm Vegas time on Saturday that said "Manny is bored, Manny is stale, Marquez can win", then I will personally find the author and kiss their feet!

What will Floyd Mayweather Jnr have made of it? Well first, he'll look back at his meeting with Marquez, which he won on a wide points decision in 2009, and say he handled the Mexican far better. But the Marquez he fought was unrecognisable from the one that Pacquiao faced: at the weekend Marquez was bigger because of a regime of strength training.

Mayweather will also reflect that the Pacquiao fight has been devalued slightly. If Pacquiao had gone in there and smashed Marquez to bits within five rounds, then the showdown with Mayweather would have gone through the roof. That's a fact. But the opposite happened, and everyone knows Marquez won; so now how do you start selling the Mayweather fight?

I still think Mayweather wants Pacquiao - although it's Arum who holds the key. He said Pacquiao and Marquez can fight for a fourth time, setting box office records in the process. And Arum can set that bout up in about three minutes - it's an absolute doddle, because we think there was a rematch clause in the initial contract.

With Mayweather, it will take three months to sort out and leave Bob feeling very old. Yeah, the Mayweather fight will make more money - but not enough more given the respective levels of stress involved.

I see the Marquez-Pacquiao rematch happening, and Floyd getting his wish to fight on May 5 - perhaps against Victor Ortiz. Why not? After the controversial way their first meeting ended - Mayweather KOing Ortiz with a legal sucker punch - it will do more money this time around. We're in a business here.

Throwback Tyson
Tyson Fury is an old school heavyweight - basically, a lunatic boxer. He fights with his heart on his sleeve, gives great value and has too much pride for his own good. He's very, very tough, has a brilliant heart - and he can bang. We saw all of that as he picked himself up off the floor to beat Neven Pajkic by third-round knockout at the weekend.

He gets hurt, he gets back up. He gets wobbled and continues. What a refreshing antidote to the boring heavyweights that are out there. People will say he's rubbish because he hit the floor - but hey, where are all the brilliant heavyweights?

He's as entertaining as it gets, which the division needs: there's a couple of Americans about at the moment who, if you put them on in their living rooms, would struggle to get their girlfriends to watch.

That said, one thing Fury's promoter Mick Hennessy could do is start hiring the kind of guys who have fallen over in world title fights recently.

If Mick can afford them, he should get hold of them - and then we'll see Fury progress.

Steve Bunce is co-host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption show. Click here for more details

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