Both should be entertaining. I predict that Pacquiao-Marquez III will outsell Mayweather-Ortiz, though with HBO more than likely covering the Mayweather fight, Arum will probably utilize Showtime along with their CBS connections.

Marquez is taking a better approach to fighting comfortably at 144 (since now he has enlisted doctors to help oversee his weight gain while even looking into ballet to help his leg strength) compared to when he bloated himself up to 142 against Mayweather, so it should be an entertaining fight with a really good backstory, considering how close the first two fights were. Still, Manny is going to pound him since the 144 catchweight doesn't really do much to help or hurt either of them.

Obviously Mayweather is far more skilled than Ortiz, but Ortiz is younger and hungrier and had upset Berto, which I think came as a surprise to a lot of people, especially Mayweather who was supposedly scouting Berto as a potential opponent. Also, Ortiz might be a little bit bigger, since I remember people saying that Ortiz weighed around 160 (give or take), while Mayweather probably will be a few pounds less than that on fight night (though I'm not completely sure). Ortiz knows the value in a victory over Mayweather (especially since his own legacy is far from being cemented since he's young), so rest assured he's going to train his ass off and has the youth to do it (unlike Mosley). As usual, if Mayweather wins, it'll be by points, but if he loses (and that's a big IF but not impossible), it'll probably be by KO.

Thoughts?

 

Bump... does nobody like boxing?

One article I read this morning/last night speculated that Mayweather purposely waited to release the fight info until after the Pacquiao-Mosley fight had finished along with the negotiations between Pacquiao and Marquez so it didn't look like he was ducking him, since Ortiz had confirmed months ago that they were in talks but Mayweather denied it.

 

I love boxing, but it's assholes like Mayweather that have killed it's popularity. Floyd is one of the all-time best welterweights, but won't risk his record to make the biggest fight since maybe Tyson-Lewis. He knows Pacquiao's strength & skill is above anyone he's faced.

If Mayweather waits too long it could end up like the lame Hopkins-Jones "rematch" when both guys were too old to excite... But I think even a 40-something Pac-man could hurt Mayweather.

 

True, but Manny's still got a lot left in him and has managed to stay active and pretty explosive. Granted he hasn't had a KO victory since Cotto (which he became known for from 2008-2009), but his last fights have all still had some notable factoids (i.e. throwing over 1,200 punches against Clottey, beating Margarito to a bloody pulp and fracturing his orbital bone while picking up an eighth weight division title, knocking Mosley down for only the third time in his career and the first time in YEARS). In addition, don't forget that Mayweather is actually older than Manny, albeit just by a year or so.

Just because I'm tired of Floyd's shit talk, excuses, etc., I REALLY hope that Ortiz beats him so boxing can just forget about him and move on. Just like you said, outside of his skill set, he's bad for boxing, especially with him being as big of a hypocrite as he is in everything he says to criticize Manny.

 

Pac-man and Mayweather are the last two marquee guyz standing in the boxing game today as for as popularity and skills and grabbing the attention and respect from the boxing community.
Sorry, but when they go, so does boxing. Time to usher the other fight game...MMA

 

You're right in the sense that no one else in boxing is nearly as iconic as they are. I could give a fuck about Mayweather, since boxing has clearly survived just fine without him during his retirement and also during his inactivity. But there are still a lot of good matchups that are good for boxing fans. They might not do over a million PPV buys, but they'll be good fights. People still want to see Cotto-Margarito II, Cotto-Chavez Jr., Martinez-Hopkins (assuming Martinez stops trying to fight smaller guys like Manny and Floyd since he may be too big for them), Khan-Bradley, Khan-Maidana II (since it was pretty close, plus Khan was running around the ring to get away from him for much of the end), Ortiz-Maidana II (and I bet Maidana would happily move up in weight since I bet Ortiz will probably stick with welterweight), Ortiz-Berto II (if Berto takes on a big enough fight and wins since it's hard to compete with Ortiz-Mayweather in terms of credibility after losing), etc.

But back to the main discussion, I just wonder if Floyd is going to do more shit talking on Manny during the pre-fight hype than he will on Ortiz. It's stupid enough that they're saying that Ortiz is a better fighter than Manny (since basically that is them saying that they are taking on a supposedly "harder" fight for less than half the guarantee).

 

Marquez destroyed Ramos this past weekend, though of course people are speculating that it was staged, which may very well have been the case since the knockdown didn't look genuine.

Either way, it's going to be fun watching Pacquiao beat Marquez's ass. I'm looking forward to Marquez copying Hatton's fall to the canvas.

 

Quick updates... apparently Top Rank has selected HBO (somewhat predictable) as the network for the Pacquiao-Marquez III fight. They're probably getting a smoking deal, considering that HBO and Showtime were competing for the fight.

Also, Arum said that the blood testing shouldn't be an issue. Floyd has been pushing for USADA to conduct the tests while Arum doesn't want them to do it, but Arum did have a point when he said USADA wouldn't be able to conduct tests in the Philippines where Manny does the first few weeks of his training.