According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Manny Pacquiao will take on Juan Manuel Marquez for a fourth battle on December 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“Because the economics for the Marquez fight were so much greater than for a Bradley rematch, that is what Manny decided to do,” said promoter Bob Arum. “It’s so much greater because of the support Marquez has from the Hispanic community. Look at the past numbers. When Pacquiao fought Marquez (in November), it sold close to 1.3 million pay-per-view. Bradley was about 900,000. That’s a big difference. Plus, the gate goes from probably $8 million to $12 million.”
“Manny knew I would prefer Bradley,” said Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach. “I think the money was a huge factor. Bradley doesn’t bring the people Marquez does. But I would have rather had revenge for that bad decision in June.”
Roach said because of the controversial nature of the three previous fights between Pacquiao and Marquez, especially their fight in November, that Pacquiao would start out “down three rounds on the scorecards. Judges are human. They know what happened before. Maybe the judges will be thinking Marquez was robbed last time and they’re human, and they will give Marquez the benefit of the doubt.
“But Manny picked Marquez, and that’s who we will get ready for. It’s about time we have a good knockout anyway.”
“We had to work it out, work out the money and then (Marquez promoter) Fernando (Beltran) had to close with Marquez because he had only talked generally with Marquez about the deal,” Arum said. “But we couldn’t close anything until Marquez got here (Thursday).”
“There is no sanctioning organization title involved,” Arum said. “We’re going to give that money to charity.”
