Quote Originally Posted by blegit View Post
I think Marquez is not talking about welterweight. I think he is talking more about status. The guy is arguably the #3 p4p in the sport, only losing to the top 2, and is still no draw. As far as the welterweight success of Pac and Marquez's probable "not so successful" welterweight attempts has to do mostly with the ability to take the bigger guy's punches over the fight's length. Pac still has a granite chin even at welterweight so this cancels/lessens the bigger guy's advantage and falls right into Pac's advantage of speed and quickness. Marquez is a much better fighter than a Margarito but I'm sure not too many of us are confident Marquez's chin would hold up to the bigger guy's punches. Now he has a bigger and stronger Pac to deal with...
Marquez has a great chin though. He got caught flush by a left hook from PBF, whilst being slightly off-balance and was knocked down but not hurt at all. Speed has been the key to manny's success from the very beginning of his miniature ascendancy to 'p4p supremacy'. Most of the guys he has fought didn't have fast enough feet to close off the ring and pin him down long enough to mount a sustained attack to the body, at which I think he would break against a bigger guy. Also could see him getting caught on the way in by someone like Martinez and simply KTFO, but unless Martinez comes down so far in weight as to nullify any possible weapons he might be able to utilise against Pac, the fight will never happen. Pac's lateral movement and speed of hand and foot is just too good for these bigger guys, who are generally slower and less agile anyway, and even then you just have to take one look at Pac's face after the Cotto fight to understand that if he ever had the stupidity to go against Roach's instructions and stand in the pocket against a bigger fighter he would get his arse handed to him, because his head movement still ain't all that - in fact, his defense in general doesn't hold up to closer inspection, but when you can just attack for 80% of a fight at blistering speed you simultaneously take away your opponent's best opportunities for counterattack and his will to launch said attack. The Pac man is truly blessed in that respect, and props to him and Roach for playing to their strengths, but the cherry-picking will never sit well with me, and stops him from really getting up there on that ATG list. As a fan of the art of boxing, I have to say I'm a big fan of Marquez and it's gonna be hard not to avert my eyes on the 12th because the circumstances are just all wrong for this one. Still, here's praying he can pull a rabbit out of the hat.