The February 8 edition of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights presented by Corona Extra will feature undefeated Welterweight Kevin Bizier (19-0, 13 KOs) and former undisputed Lightweight world champion Nate Campbell (36-9-1, 1 NC, 26 KOs) in the 12-round main event. Friday’s show from Montreal will air live at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2 HD, and will be available online through WatchESPN.com and on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app. The card will also air live on ESPN Deportes+, the new digital extension of ESPN Deportes, and will air tape delayed on ESPN Deportes at 10:30 p.m. The card is promoted by GYM.

Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas will be ringside at the Bell Centre describing the action for ESPN2 HD. Studio host Todd Grisham (@GrishamESPN) will present the latest boxing news and interview ESPN Deportes’ Delvin Rodriguez (26-6-3, 14 KOs) to discuss Rodriguez’s upcoming fight with George Tahdooahnippah (31-0-1, 23 KOs). That fight will be televised February 15, at 9 p.m. on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. Alex Pombo and Rodriguez will call this week’s fights for ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates (Friday Night Fights) with Leopoldo Gonzalez and Pablo Viruega in the studio. Bilingual reporter Bernardo Osuna (@osunaespn) will present live interviews and reports for both shows.

ESPN2 will present an encore telecast of Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez 4 at 8 p.m. leading up to Friday Night Fights. December’s HBO Pay-Per-View fight, which ended in a Marquez sixth-round KO of Pacquiao, was named ESPN.com’s 2012 “Fight of the Year” and “Knockout of the Year.” The fight was recently named 2012 “Fight of the Year” by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA).

Main Event:
Quebec’s Bizier is coming off a December eight-round unanimous decision win over Doel Carrasquillo, while Campbell a native of Jacksonville, Fla., will look to build momentum following an eight-round decision win over Krzysztof Szot.

Campbell enters Friday’s fight with big fight experience, having fought former and current titlists Danny Garcia, Victor Ortiz, Timothy Bradley Jr., Juan Diaz, Isaac Hlatshwayo, Robbie Peden, and Joel Casamayor.

Co-Feature:
Friday’s 10-round co-feature will pit undefeated Junior Lightweights Tyler Asselstine of Toronto (12-0, 7 KOs), against Montreal’s Baha Laham (10-0-1 4 KOs). Asselstine is coming off a first-round TKO win over Sandor Horvath, while Laham won an eight-round unanimous decision over Jose Saez in his last fight.

Follow ESPN’s Friday Night Fights on Twitter @ESPNFNF or like it on Facebook. Follow ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates on Twitter @ESPNBoxeo. Also score the fights round-by-round with the “Live Friday Night Fights Facebook Voting App,” an application on the ESPN FNF Facebook page that allows viewers to score the fight round-by-round.

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (January 28, 2013) — Top Rank’s ultra-talented stable ran the table winning all the major 2012 awards from the Boxing Writers Association of America. The BWAA announced on Sunday that World Boxing Organization junior featherweight champion NONITO DONAIRE was the recipient of its Sugar Ray Robinson “Fighter of the Year” award. Donaire (31-1, 20 KOs) won all four of his world title fights last year, defeating Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr., Jeffrey Mathebula, Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce, the last two by knockout, to extend his 11-year winning streak to 30 bouts. Capping a career-best year, Donaire had already been named the 2012 Fighter of the Year by Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and many other websites and newspapers.

Donaire’s trainer, former International Boxing Federation junior lightweight champion ROBERT GARCIA, was named the Eddie Futch “Trainer of the Year,” for his work with the Filipino Flash as well as with newly-minted WBO featherweight champion Mikey Garcia and undefeated former World Boxing Association lightweight champion Brandon Rios.

“Nonito came into his own in 2012. He will do even greater things in 2013 and beyond,” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum. “He will become the next big pay-per-view star. Robert Garcia truly deserves the award as 2012 Trainer of the Year. As the best young trainer in boxing, his future is tremendous.”

“2012 was a text book year for Nonito,” added Top Rank president Todd duBoef. “Four fights against top division leaders and with decisive, impressive performances.”

Manny Pacquiao – Juan Manuel Márquez 4, which was co-promoted with Zanfer Promotions, was named the BWAA’s Muhammad Ali – Joe Frazier “Fight of the Year.” The action-packed battle, which was held at the sold-out MGM Grand Garden Arena and sold close to 1.2 million pay-per-views in the U.S. alone, featured excitement, drama and a one-punch knockout victory by the Méxican icon Márquez.

Trampler, a Hall of Fame matchmaker, is the co-winner of the Barney Nagler Award for “Long and Meritorious Service” to the sport of boxing.

The BWAA Awards Dinner will be held in New York this spring at a venue and date to be announced.

For more information on Top Rank and the BWAA, go to www.toprank.com and www.bwaa.org, respectively.

ESPN Deportes and ESPN2 will present an encore telecast of Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez 4, the HBO Pay-Per-View fight which took place December 8 and ended in a Marquez sixth-round KO of Pacquiao. ESPN Deportes will televise the fight on January 18, at 9 p.m. ET and January 26, at 10 p.m. ESPN2 will reair the fight February 8, at 8 p.m. On ESPN Deportes, Juan Manuel Marquez and Jorge Eduardo Sanchez will discuss each round between rounds throughout the fight. The bout was recently nominated by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) for its 2012 “Fight of the Year,” honors.

The first three fights between the two were all close and controversial. Pacquiao won a majority decision in their third fight in 2011, and a split-decision in their second fight in 2008. They fought to a controversial draw in their first fight in 2004.

The schedule:

Date
Time (ET)
Program
Network

Fri, Jan 18
9 p.m.
Pacquiao-Marquez 4
ESPN Deportes

Sat, Jan 26
10 p.m.
Pacquiao-Marquez 4
ESPN Deportes

Fri, Feb 8
8 p.m.
Pacquiao-Marquez 4
ESPN2

SAN DIEGO, CA –January 3, 2013 – WealthTV’s live boxing programming efforts for 2012 have been recognized by the Boxing Writers Association of America, BWAA, and by ESPN’s Dan Rafael, arguably the leading authority on boxing. The BWAA recently nominated six fights for Fight of the Year candidates. Two of the six fights were featured live on WealthTV, namely Brian “Hawaiian Punch” Viloria v. Hernan “Tyson” Marquez and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez v. Juan Francisco Estrada. (Of the remaining four fights, one was featured on Showtime and three were featured on HBO, including the Manny Pacquiao v. Juan Manual Marquez IV fight.) The BWAA also nominated world champion Brian Viloria for Fighter of the Year. Viloria, who was featured on WealthTV’s Fight Night on November 17, unified the WBO and WBA Flyweight World Championship with a victory over Hernan Marquez.

According to Jack Hirsch, president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, “When people think about great fights they usually associate them with only HBO and Showtime. However, one look at the Boxing Writers Association of America’s ballot for the 2012 Fight of the Year should dispel that. Two of the six contests on the ballot (Roman Gonzalez – Juan Francisco Estrada and Brian Viloria – Hernan Marquez) were telecast by WealthTV.”

ESPN’s Dan Rafael, perhaps the most well respected authority on boxing, named two time WealthTV headliner David Price (15-0-0) as ESPN’s Prospect of the Year. Price, a 6’ 8”, 250 lb undefeated heavyweight has been featured twice in recent months on WealthTV. On October 13th the undefeated Price made blazing fast work of Audley Harrison – dropping Harrison in 82 seconds into the first round to finish the contest. Price returned on WealthTV on November 30th to put a potentially career-ending second round finishing loss on an outmatched Matt Skelton. Rafael’s pick for Prospect of the Year is highly anticipated by boxing fans for Rafael’s astute ability to pick young prospects. David Price joins a prestige list that includes past inductees Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan, Andre Berto, Canelo Alverez, among others.

Rafael’s naming of two-time WealthTV headliner David Price as Prospect of the Year combined with the BWAA recognitions, gives WealthTV reason to feel good about its boxing efforts in 2012. Dan Rafael of ESPN summed thing up, “With two Fight of the Year candidates and being the US outlet for Price, WealthTV had a great year.”

For 2013, WealthTV will be featuring 40 to 60 bouts according to network executive Charles Herring and the quality of the events is only improving. One of the first live events for 2013 will see undefeated British heavyweight David Price challenging one of America’s best heavyweights, Tony “The Tiger” Thompson. Thompson, a proven world Heavyweight title challenger is currently the No. 2 rated American by BoxRec. The fight, scheduled to take place on February 23, live and exclusively on WealthTV, has received the highest rating from BoxRec, earning five stars for the matchup. In addition to the Price v. Thompson bout scheduled for February, WealthTV has agreements in place for additional bouts featuring David Price.

“When WealthTV first announced it would telecast boxing events the consensus was that it would be an occasional show featuring no more than moderate talent. However, it is now quite obvious that WealthTV is a major player in the sport. WealthTV has consistently telecast some of the best fights and fighters in the world. It has delivered everything it promised,” stated Jack Hirsch of the BWAA.

“Our boxing staff has been searching the world for the best fighters, regardless of weight-class and nationality. We don’t feature or promote a small stable of boxers, but rather work with a number of promoters, seeking out the very best boxing events. We’re extremely proud that our featured boxers and fights have received recognition by the BWAA and Dan Rafael of ESPN,”,stated Charles Herring, president of WealthTV.

In addition to its world-class championship fights, WealthTV will be featuring the fast-paced and adrenaline pumping “Prizefighter: Welterweights III” matches on January 19th. WealthTV also shows first airings and encore fights every Thursday night at 10PM EST.

WealthTV’s Fight Night can be seen on WealthTV nationally on Verizon FiOS TV channel 169 and 669 in HD, AT&T U-Verse TV channels 470 and 1470 in HD, along with over 100 cable systems across the country as well as on line viewing on numerous connected devices and via www.wealthtv.com.

About WealthTV

WealthTV is the premier lifestyle and entertainment network —the destination for exclusive and original programming, simultaneously transmitted in high definition and standard definition. WealthTV delivers to informative shows to its viewers, providing invaluable insights on what every American dreams of – from travel secrets to fast cars, from outrageous homes to live events, and much more. The network fills a television vacuum by delivering intellectually stimulating, thought-provoking entertainment and always-unbiased news from an insider’s perspective. For more information, please visit www.wealthtv.com

Editor’s note: For part 1, please click here.

***

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8, chemistry was everywhere, and that won’t be forgotten. Arguments that it wasn’t, explanations that rely on genetics or diets or work ethics, begin their analyses, necessarily, in recent training camps – like a biography whose first page treats this morning’s breakfast.

To see little Juan Manuel Marquez, aged 36, running in the green mountains of Mexico, jerking volcanic rocks overhead and imbibing his own amber urine before a “welterweight” match with Floyd Mayweather in 2009 allowed no doubt of Marquez’s dedication, however much his physique resembled cinnamon candlewax more than sandstone. Whence Marquez’s enhanced build, at age 39, then: new genes? a switch from beef to chickpeas? better form on the military press? The change is a chemical one. That is not the indictment of Marquez’s character it may appear; many disinterested observers believe whatever science Marquez employed in his fourth fight with Pacquiao was science employed against Marquez in at least their last three. If a natural athlete fought a chemically enhanced one on even terms then switched to a regimen of chemicals, in other words, KO-6 is exactly the result oddsmakers might predict.

A week later, Donaire unveiled in Houston, conversely, the sort of long body athletes wore a generation ago. Donaire was finely conditioned, fit, and his natural reflexes were sensational, but he did not have what bodybuilders call vascularity – crinkled veins protruding in many places but most tellingly along the center of the biceps.

How much sports fans care about the PED debate, though, is best measured by an inverse of their enthusiasm for the NFL, in which 300-pound players have improved their presence 53,200-percent since 1970.

*

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8, Marquez made a generation of Mexican fans hopeful again, after it’d watched its best figures undone by Pacquiao, an offensive force whose historic ferocity was belied by its happy manifestation – smiles en route to the ring, jaunty bounces during attack, gloves thrust encouragingly above the head whenever any opponent scored him.

Marquez did to Pacquiao what no one else was able: Make him ignore trainer Freddie Roach. Once Marquez felled him with that sweeping right hand in round 3, he had Pacquiao in a place of carelessness, mindlessness even, where, so long as Marquez could withstand what rage he ignited, Pacquiao was bound to make mistakes both men knew he made bounding in, mistakes Roach was powerless to forbid. Even after Pacquiao’s best round, the fifth, Roach portentously, uncharacteristically, shouted over the chaotic din of his charge’s corner: “Manny, move your head!” If instead Roach had shouted on his way up the stairs in the last second of the sixth “Juan, my guy doesn’t move his head,” it could have been no clearer to Marquez, a predator already crooking his right elbow at just the angle to stick a middle knuckle square on Pacquiao’s face.

Donaire and Arce, six days later, smiled and laughed and hugged one another through their weighin. Ethnic pedigrees assured the folks gathered before a black-canvas backdrop at PlazAmericas Mall Saturday’s fight would be violent, but there was so little contempt to display, or hide, it was one more reminder how different was the rivalry at green-and-gold MGM Grand the week before.

*

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8 was a reminder, too, that Marquez traveled to the Philippines after their second fight to interrupt those islands’ celebration of their hero’s triumph and plead with Pacquiao for a rubber match. When that match did not come, Marquez made 2009’s fight of the year against Juan Diaz in Houston’s Toyota Center.

That was a reminder of the unfriendly terrain Marquez trod to become his country’s most celebrated prizefighter, what obscurity the generation’s greatest counterpuncher endured while his fellow countrymen, Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, made their country’s most famous trilogy. The way Marquez solved Pacquiao all by himself from the seat of his white and red-striped trunks in 2004, frantically querying a database of openings and counters for some arrangement resembling the Filipino’s unorthodox attack enough to let the experimentation begin, experimentation that would evolve from hooking at the shoulder to ducking the left cross to skipping out of range to countering, finally – experimentation Marquez performed alone because, while Nacho Beristain could tell him what punch to throw and why, he could not tell Marquez when to throw it because at the championship level boxing moves too fast, with consequences too wicked, to trust any perception but one’s own.

After he retired Arce a week after Marquez left aficionados wondering if Pacquiao would fight another day, Donaire did what he could to remind folks he’d brought Filipinos solace. He had, after all, stretched a Mexican. But that Mexican was not Marquez, and he was not Pacquiao.

*

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8, Marquez brought vindication to himself, of course, but also to Mexican and Mexican-American fathers in the U.S. who told their kids, no matter the success of Pacquiao’s southpaw attack or the celebrity of Mayweather’s low lead hand, Marquez’s was the form they must emulate. He was not fast as those other guys, just as they weren’t, but he was perfect. His quiet mastery of a grim craft held within it, too, insights about their immigrant culture, just as what spite he showed men he combated imparted forgotten details about the conquest of New Spain.

This will be the year Nonito Donaire is remembered for escaping the long shadow of Manny Pacquiao, both for what Donaire did, and for the way Marquez shortened that shadow in Las Vegas.

For hosting our sport’s best fight and best fighter, in two different cities, the week that began Dec. 8 was 2012’s most excellent.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8 brought a series of instants affecting as can be experienced in professional sport. One of those instants brought a deep, royal blue sense of Marquez’s vindication, reminiscent in its way of Antonio Margarito’s victory over Miguel Cotto at MGM Grand in 2008. Reminiscent, conjecture says, in a few ways.

There was a difference between the two moments, though, a difference uncaptured by television, that boasting, refracting medium that lies to congregants flatteringly enough they later find no irony in remanding events’ eyewitnesses to tapes of what television told them to see. Television, that extraordinary phenomenon, continues to affect boxing more than it covers it.

The difference between Marquez and Margarito lay in their reactions. Margarito, who had longer to process Cotto’s demise, was euphoric, dropping to his knees, blessing himself, spinning joyfully in his cornermen’s arms. Marquez was not surprised as anyone else. He’d the benefit of feeling the punch on his right knuckle, of course, but it was not entirely that. He was not containing a euphoria as he paced with his black gloves on the red waistband of his trunks, inching nearer Pacquiao to admire what he’d done, or when he ran across the ring – to a neutral corner, mind you – and mounted a turnbuckle to savor his vindication; he was acting out a conqueror’s script.

What happened on television was a single camera that showed Pacquiao regaining consciousness sooner than what happened at ringside, where split screens above the ring showed Marquez fixated on a proper celebration, ensuring his white Rexona sponsor’s cap was straightened, while Pacquiao’s wife sobbed, silently screamed and tried to swim to her facedown husband, promoter Bob Arum consoling her while looking inconsolable. It happened much slower at ringside; there was no one shouting about keystones or anticipating fifth fights: there was confusion marinated in fright, tempered by a need to record what transpired.

But memory is a funny thing, and what I remember best from those moments is Marquez’s unflinching seizure of them, while the Filipino journalist on my right worried Pacquiao might never stir. It was a confirmation of this: Were Marquez offered a choice in the last moment of the sixth round, told if he threw that right hand it might kill Pacquiao but if he didn’t he might lose another close decision, Marquez would throw the punch. Whatever other prizefighters tell you about themselves during promotions, know this: A willingness to kill in the ring makes Marquez unique.

Six days later in Houston, the mood was much lighter. It was the weighin for an inconsequential coronation: a crowning of Filipino Nonito Donaire as 2012’s fighter of the year, and a crowning payday for Mexican Jorge Arce. Donaire was a safer athlete to cover than Marquez.

Arce did some chemical experimentation in camp to make his upper body more muscular, in the laboratory of Marquez’s own scientist, but at worse, one suspected, the enhanced physique might extend Arce’s consciousness a round. The left hook Donaire doused Arce’s spirit with at Toyota Center was comparatively merciful. Arce went down, but there was little fright, as one sensed Donaire would drop on his knees and administer CPR if his friend were in genuine peril.

Somehow, strangely, illogically, knowing a man rendered another unconscious in an act of temporarily suspended affection, as Donaire did Arce, made it feel safer than what congealed indifference Marquez showed Pacquiao’s plight in Las Vegas.

*

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8 made their tetralogy a unique event in boxing history. In its asymmetry – Pacquiao dropped Marquez five times but will be remembered as the rivalry’s collapsed form on the blue mat – and its excellence, it entered our sport’s annals as something that may be approached or someday bettered but never matched: a rivalry whose first three fights were excellent enough to merit a fourth but inferior to the fourth.

What happened in the seven days that began Dec. 8th was unique and excellent, too, in this way: The fight of the year and the fighter of the year happened in a week together but 1,500 miles apart. Marquez-Pacquiao IV will be remembered as 2012’s best fight because of its superior composition of three elements, violence and craft and consequence – the winner was covered in his own blood when he made his opponent sleep with the same counter right hand he landed the round before, spinning Pacquiao sideways in the fifth, and with that right hand in round 6 Marquez brought the conclusion of an era.

Nonito Donaire will be declared 2012’s best prizefighter because of a superior composition of these three elements: Activity, craft and consequence. Donaire fought twice as often as his peers, and he fought actual opponents in actual weight classes, gaming none of them with the scale, and by subjecting himself to VADA testing he put the lie to most athletes’ claims and exerted pressure on everyone including his own team.

*

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8, Marquez had been the slower man in the fourth fight as he’d been in the first and second and third. He was able to offset Pacquiao’s unique attack with “inteligencia” – a word Marquez uttered in every interview he conducted after their second fight before their third after their third and before their fourth.

Marquez and his trainer Nacho Beristain welcomed the more conventional Pacquiao they saw in fight three; so long as Pacquiao’s punches came from familiar angles, no matter their speed or forcefulness, Marquez and Beristain did not fear them for the same reason a major league hitter does not fear a 120-mph fastball twice thrown over the plate at belt level. One doesn’t get in the major leagues without being able to hit a fastball, no matter its velocity, and one doesn’t get out of a Mexico City gym without being able to sustain any punch he sees coming.

The scariest moment of Dec. 8, then, was not the Pacquiao left hand that knocked Marquez onto the knuckles of his left glove but instead the crazily executed, left-foot-off-the-mat, right-hand chop Pacquiao landed a few seconds after he put Marquez on the canvas. That was the punch that stiffened Marquez’s right leg and sent him in frantic retreat till the ropes’ touching his back made him swing at Pacquiao savagely because that is what Marquez does when cornered.

After the fight there was an odd little moment when Marquez and Beristain, no sore winners they, alternately led the MGM Grand media center in a rendition of “Happy Birthday” for Bob Arum and a heartfelt hug for the elderly promoter and rival whom Beristain flatly accused of ruining the sport while they shared a Mandalay Bay dais after Pacquiao-Marquez II in 2008.

Arum’s appearance, six days later, at a Houston mall, where he briefly posed for pictures with Donaire and Arce, was perfunctory – like everyone else’s.

***

Editor’s note: Part 2 will be posted Wednesday.

***

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

How will 2012 be remembered? For a single punch from Juan Manuel Marquez that ended the Manny Pacquiao era? For questions about performance-enhancing drugs? For controversial scorecards? For Emanuel Steward’s death?

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

In the end, however, the year is most noteworthy for a changing of the guard. Pacquiao, Marquez and Miguel Cotto are moving off center stage and toward retirement. Nonito Donaire, Andre Ward, Canelo Alvarez, Brandon Rios, Abner Mares and Danny Garcia are poised to succeed them. The Pacquiao era was a rich one, even without a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. It might be hard to duplicate, but that’s up to an emerging generation which is bound to spring its own surprises and create its own drama.

A look back with a 10-count:

Fighter of the Year: Donaire. He’s doing it the right way by staying busy and showing leadership in the face of mounting questions about PEDs. Donaire undergoes rigorous testing, 24/7, beyond the outdated procedure mandated by state commissions. Marquez is a deserving candidate. Without undergoing the same tests, however, he loses votes. Fair? Not really. But that’s the state of the game these days. Donaire understands that. More important, he addresses it

Knockout of the Year: Marquez. Pacquiao may never recover from the right hand that Marquez threw at the end of the sixth round with the tactical brilliance he employed throughout the four-fight rivalry. Despite all the suspicions, Marquez’ test with the Nevada State Athletic Commission was clean. He didn’t need PEDS to knock out Pacquiao anyway. Marquez set it up and Pacquiao set himself up for it.

Promoter of the Year: Bob Arum. At 81, he continues to put together fights that surprise and dominate. Pacquiao’s crushing loss to Marquez on Dec. 8 seemed to sadden him on the night his birthday. But for drama it was a huge hit. He promoted Rios’ seventh-round stoppage of Mike Alvarado in October in a bout that looked as if it was a lock for a Fight of the Year. Just when it looked as if nothing could surpass Rios-Alvarado, Arum pulled off a show-stopper in Marquez-Pacquiao.

Comeback of the Year: Mike Tyson. No kidding. He’s taking his one-man, Broadway show on the road early next year. He was on stage for the Pacquiao-Marquez weigh-in at the MGM Grand in early December. He looked happy and, above all, beyond all the demons that nearly destroyed him a decade ago. Who would have ever predicted that? Not even he would have.

The Rodney Dangerfield Award: Timothy Bradley. Okay, maybe we’re kidding a little bit here. But what does Bradley have to do to get some respect? He didn’t judge the fight that gave him the controversial decision over Pacquiao in June. If anything, he exposed a decline in Pacquiao that perhaps had something to do with the Filipino’s loss in December to Marquez. Whatever you believe, Bradley didn’t deserve to be almost exiled by the business and fans.

The Karl Rove Award: Duane Ford and C.J. Ross. The two Nevada judges favored Bradley over Pacquiao on scorecards that are the equivalent of a Fox News poll, which still has Mitt Romney beating Barack Obama.

Most Bizarre Post-Fight News Conference: Bradley-Pacquiao. Bradley, with injuries to both feet, showed up in a wheelchair. In a sport that has seen it all, it had to be the first time that the guy in the wheelchair was the winner.

Most Intriguing Newcomer of the Year: Fifty Cent. The rapper, otherwise known as Curtis Jackson, displayed some real smarts and likability in his emerging role as a promoter. He’s more visible and willing to deal with the media than Al Haymon, the elusive advisor. He has a better chance to awaken the dormant African-American audience more than anyone.

Most Inspiring Story of the Year: Paul Williams. The former welterweight and middleweight showed up in Las Vegas a day before the dueling cards featuring Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez on Sept. 15 and a few months after a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. Williams was upbeat and even said he hoped to fight again one day. His body was broken. Nothing about his spirit was.

Slacker of the Year: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. He nearly scored a knockout in the final round of a one-sided fight dominated by Martinez. Imagine what Chavez, who tested positive for marijuana, might have done if he hadn’t trained haphazardly with workouts that started at 1 a.m., or 2 a.m., or whenever he decided. We know that traces of cannabis showed up in that post-fight drug test. We’re sure that no trace of maturity did.

HOUSTON (December 13, 2012) The World Boxing Association (WBA) super bantamweight championship fight between undefeated defending champion GUILLERMO “El Chacal” RIGONDEAUX and former world champion POONSAWAT KRATINGDAENGGYM has been canceled from this Saturday’s card at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Rigondeaux vs. Kratingdaenggym was scheduled to be televised live on HBO® as the co-main event to the NONITO DONAIRE vs. JORGE ARCE World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior featherweight title fight. Donaire vs. Arce will go on as scheduled, televised live on HBO, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT. The telecast will open with the exclusive replay of last week’s Fight of the Year — MANNY PACQUIAO vs. JUAN MANUEL MÁRQUEZ 4.

“The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation notified us today that they would not issue a license to Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym,” said Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank®. “I feel very badly for both fighters who trained very hard. Top Rank’s matchmakers are working with HBO to returning Guillermo back to the ring as soon as possible.”

Remaining Tickets to the Donaire vs. Arce World Junior Featherweight Championship event doubleheader, priced at $200, $100, $60 and $30, plus additional fees, can be purchased at the Toyota Center box office (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.), online at www.HoustonToyotaCenter.com, by phone at 866-4HOU-TIX (866-446-8849) and select Houston area Randalls stores. This prestigious event is promoted by Top Rank®, in association with Zanfer Promotions and Tecate.

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com/boxing.

CHICAGO, IL (December 12, 2012) Adrian “EL Tigre’ Granados is finalizing his preparations for his showdown this Friday night, DECEMBER 14 with Antonio “Aztec God Of War” Canas at Cicero Stadium but was thrilled to see his mentor Juan Manuel Marquez knockout Manny Pacquiao this past Saturday night in their fourth fight.

Presented by 8 Count Productions and Round 3 Productions, the Granados/Canas CROSSTOWN RIVALS junior welterweight clash headlines WINDY CITY FIGHT NIGHT 23.

“I know how much it meant to Juan Manuel, he was so disappointed after each of the first three bouts. To have it end the way it did on Saturday night brought a great deal of satisfaction to him” said the 23-year-old Granados. “He’s the best Mexican fighter of his time, better than Barrera or Morales and right after Chavez Sr. all-time.”

“I trained with Juan Manuel and his brother Rafael in Mexico City for a little over a year beginning in the spring of 2008. Juan Manuel was preparing for his fight with Joel Casamayor and then later for his first bout with Juan Diaz.”

“For me it was like going off to college, the school of boxing. Working with Nacho Beristain and the brothers taught me so much about becoming a world class professional fighter and the preparation and training involved.”

A highly decorated amateur, the Cicero native first met legendary trainer Beristain at Cicero Stadium when his then charge and current world champion Abner Mares defeated Angel Priolo on April 20, 2007.

“I met Nacho and Jaime Quintana that night and they invited me to train in Mexico City with the brothers and Abner.”

About his upcoming fight against Canas, Granados couldn’t be more excited, “This is a dream come true for me to headline in Cicero. For years I’ve gone to the fights with my Dad at Cicero Stadium and Hawthorne Race Course, always wanting to fight in a main event.”

‘I’m very happy to face a young, undefeated rugged fighter headlining at Cicero Stadium, I never thought it would come to this.”

Looking ahead to 2013 Granados does see a couple of fights that he’d like to pursue, “Certainly a rematch with Frankie Gomez and also I’d like to test myself against guys like Jose Benavidez or Jessie Vargas who I fought in the amateurs. Those are the guys considered the best prospects so that’s who I want to fight in 2013.”

Granados lost a very close majority decision to Frankie Gomez in August 2011, an eight round war that was broadcast internationally on SOLO BOXEO TECATE.

Advance tickets for WINDY CITY FIGHT NIGHT 23, priced at $100, $75, $50 and $30 may be purchased by calling 312-226-5800. Cicero Stadium is located at 1909 S. Laramie in Cicero, Illinois, 1.5 miles south of the Eisenhower Expressway. Doors will open on the night of the event at 7PM with the first bell at 8PM.

ABOUT 8 COUNT PRODUCTIONS/ROUND 3 PRODUCTIONS

8 Count Productions, HOME OF THE BEST IN CHICAGO BOXING, was started by Dominic Pesoli in 1998 and has consistently presented the highest quality professional boxing events in Chicagoland.

Joining forces with Frank Mugnolo’s Round 3 Productions in 2011, their partnership is currently among the premier boxing promotional firms in the United States.

Fighters currently under the 8 Count Productions/Round 3 Productions banner include; IBO Light Heavyweight World Champion Andrzej Fonfara, super middleweight contender Donovan George, world class junior welterweight prospect Adrian Granados, former world title challenger Edner Cherry, super middleweight prospect Paul Littleton, middleweight prospect Viktor Polyakov and welterweight prospect Jaime Herrera.

For more information on 8 Count Productions/Round 3 Productions please visit their new website, www.8countproductions.com. Follow them on Twitter at 8_Count and Facebook at “8 Count Productions”.

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (December 9, 2012) – Following his knockout loss to Juan Manuel Márquez, Fighter of the Decade MANNY ”Pacman” PACQUIAO made a precautionary visit to University Medical Center.

“Manny was given a CT scan and the results were negative,” said Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s advisor. “We were in an out in just over an hour and Manny was in excellent spirits.”

Pacquiao returned to his penthouse suite in THEhotel for a family dinner followed by a viewing of his fourth fight against Marquez. As the DVD played, Pacquiao announced “Spoiler alert. I don’t think you are going to like how this ends!”

Pacquiao then issued the following statement to his fans:

“First and foremost I would like to thank God for keeping Juan Manuel Márquez and me safe during our fight on Saturday night,” said Pacquiao. “I want to congratulate Juan Manuel. I have no excuses. It was a good fight and he deserved the victory. I think boxing fans who watched us were winners too.

“To all my fans, I would like to thank you for your prayers and assure you that I am fine. I am looking forward to a nice rest and then I will be back to fight.

“On behalf of Jinkee and our family we would like to wish everyone a joyous Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.”

In a consensus Fight of the Year, Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KOs), of the Philippines, ahead on all three scorecards 47-46, was knocked out by Márquez (55-6-1, 40 KOs), of México, via a spectacular right hand, with one second remaining in round No. 6. It took place at the soldout MGM Grand Garden Arena, in front of 16,348 fans. Their four-fight rivalry now stands at 2-1-1 in favor of Pacquiao.

Pacquiao-Márquez 4 was promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, Zanfer Promotions, Márquez Boxing, Tecate, Wonderful Pistachios, Cinemax ‘Banshee,’ Smart Communications, Universal Pictures ‘Django Unchained’ and MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.

The Pacquiao vs. Márquez 4 telecast was produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® and available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com and at www.facebook.com/hboboxing. Use the hashtag #PacMarquez to join the conversation on Twitter. For Pacquiao vs. Márquez updates, log on to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com.

LAS VEGAS – An era came crashing down, face first. Jinkee Pacquiao cried. Her husband couldn’t. Manny Pacquiao was unconscious. After the smelling salts were applied and he awakened, he smiled. He might have been the only Filipino in the world to smile then, now and perhaps for a very long time. The Philippines could only weep.

But there might have been some relief in the Pacquiao smile.

Finally, he can move on.

Finally, he can get on with his political career.

Finally, he doesn’t have to answer any more questions about Floyd Mayweather, Jr., and the media doesn’t have to ask them.

Time to turn the page.

But it’s up to him.

After his collision with Juan Manuel Marquez’ right hand Saturday night in the final second of the sixth round of the fourth chapter of their rivalry at the MGM Grand, Pacquiao wasn’t ready to step out of the ropes for good and into a full time career in the political ring.

“I’m going to take a rest and come back,’’ Pacquiao said after Marquez beat for the first time.

He might re-think that tomorrow or next week or next year. A review of the stunning stoppage on video might do a lot to convince him that a fifth fight with Marquez isn’t worth the risk. While the predominately Mexican crowd danced and sang in celebration of Marquez decisive victory, Pacquiao talked about a fifth fight.

“Why not, if the promoters can make it?’’ he said.

Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum echoed the why-not. A live gate of more than $10 million is a pretty good reason to do some more business.

But Pacquiao wore a T-shirt that, unwittingly perhaps, summed it up. Finished Business, it said. It was supposed to be a message about a rivalry that he finished. Instead, it could have said it all for his brilliant career.

Marquez, who had a knockdown scored against him when his left hand hit the canvas from a jarring left in the fifth, foresaw a chance to knock out Pacquiao.

“He was coming in and I felt that I could hit him with a perfect punch,’’ said Marquez, who also knocked down Pacquiao in the third.

That punch landed at a moment when Pacquiao never saw it. His trainer, Freddie Roach, said he got careless, which is another way of saying it time to think about retirement.

Before the bout, Pacquiao got a visit in his dressing room from Mitt Romney, who wanted to be president and failed in U.S. elections last month. Roach, Arum and others in Pacquiao’s entourage have often said the Filipino Congressman has aspirations to be president of his own country.

He might have better chance that than at winning a fifth over Marquez.

LAS VEGAS – The definitive end of the Manny Pacquiao Era came Saturday. It came in an act of sudden, precise violence. And it came from the right fist of Pacquiao’s nemesis, Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez.

In the sixth round of their fourth fight, in the closing second of it in fact, Marquez used Pacquiao’s feint as his trigger, planted his weight, and threw a short right hand with years of frustration behind it. The punch landed purely, forced Pacquiao’s chin to his right collarbone, and rendered the Filipino entirely unconscious before he landed face-first on the apron. No 10-count was necessary.

The official time of Marquez’s victory and vindication was 2:59 of round 6.

Everything about Saturday’s match was different from its predecessor conducted 13 months ago. This time, Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KOs) was the larger, stronger, more powerful man. Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KOs) was still the match’s quicker and busier fighter, but he was no longer its hunter.

After a pair of very even opening rounds, the third saw Marquez lean leftwards and catch Pacquiao with a looping right hand Pacquiao appeared to see but was surprised by nonetheless. Pacquiao dropped directly to the mat, in a stunning moment entirely unanticipated by anything seen from him in a decade of superfights. Pacquiao rose, however, and fought the still-cautious Marquez off him.

Marquez was still cautious for a reason. After another even round in the fourth, Pacquiao blitzed Marquez in the fifth, dropping him with a straight left, thrown from Pacquiao’s southpaw stance, that stunned Marquez but did not truly hurt him. It affected Pacquiao more than Marquez, actually, emboldening him towards recklessness. After nearly three minutes of attacking Marquez in the sixth, on his way to a two-point lead on all three judges’ scorecards, Pacquiao showed Marquez his signature move one time too many.

Pacquiao feinted the left cross, took a hop back, and then leaped at Marquez, hands-down. Marquez, his back on the ropes, dropped his head underneath Pacquiao’s left hand, and threw his right at Pacquiao’s chin. And in an instant, the Manny Pacquiao Era was ended.

YURIORKIS GAMBOA VS. MICHAEL FARENAS
The plan was this: His promoter, rapper 50 Cent, would drop from the ceiling, and then Yuriokoris Gamboa would drop his opponent directly on the canvas. “Fiddy” did his part.

Saturday’s co-main event, a far more competitive affair than anticipated, or perhaps desired, saw Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa (22-0, 16 KOs) win a wide unanimous decision over Filipino Michael Farenas (33-4-4, 26 KOs) in a match that was not without suspense. Scores went 117-109, 118-108 and 117-108, all for Gamboa, who despite landing more than 550 punches was unable to stop Farenas and had to rise from the mat in round 9 to prevail.

After a first stanza that saw Gamboa’s superior reflexes and movement dominate, the second found Gamboa staggered by a pair of left crosses from the southpaw Farenas. Those punches from the Filipino, though, did little more than incite Gamboa – who felled Farenas in the final seconds of the stanza.

Round 3 found more aggression from Gamboa, but also some unexpected fortitude and defiance from Farenas, who both weathered Gamboa’s attack and staggered Gamboa again in the fourth with looped left hands, for which Gamboa seemed to have no comprehensive plan. Gamboa, whose attention span is short as his talent is long, often got himself struck by punches a lesser talented man – one who relied more on fundamentals than reflex – might have ducked or blocked.

After a sixth round that saw cuts over Farenas’ eyes deepen and bleed enough for a ringside doctor to give him a full examination before the seventh, Gamboa tore out his corner and tried to end the fight sensationally. After 45 second of ferocious combat, though, when a weakened Farenas was nevertheless still standing and trading, Gamboa’s activity dropped considerably, and while he did enough to win subsequent rounds, his willingness to chase a knockout more or less disappeared.

When it returned in the ninth, it nearly cost Gamboa the ‘0’ on his record, as the Cuban, sensing a knockout was near, walked himself directly into a counter left hand that dropped him on the blue mat. Gamboa rose on wobbly legs and held on tight for much of the next two minutes.

After an uneventful 10th and 11th, both men exchanged occasionally in the 12th but otherwise shuffled to the finish line, satisfied with not being felled again – even if it meant not felling the other man.

MIGUEL VAZQUEZ VS. MERCITO GESTA
It was a title match between an experienced but dull champion and an exciting but inexperienced challenger, and the champion owned it. Most every minute of it.

In the penultimate fight of Saturday’s undercard, Mexican Miguel Vazquez (25-3, 19 KOs) easily defended his IBF lightweight title, decisioning Filipino Mercito Gesta (26-1-1, 14 KOs) by unanimous scores of 117-111, 119-109 and 118-110. It may not have been that close.

After an opening round that saw Vazquez look characteristically slippery while Gesta did little to press an attack, the second and third saw Vazquez too quick, busy and awkward for Gesta. Vazquez would attack Gesta, and have certain success, and then Gesta, after patiently waiting, would decide it was his turn. By the time Gesta began his attack, though, Vazquez would be gone.

The next four rounds saw more of the same, as Gesta, for all his vaunted explosiveness against lesser opponents, simply did not have a solution for the problems an experienced champion like Vazquez proposed to him. Gesta threw ominous left hooks aplenty from his southpaw stance, but Vazquez picked them up scientifically, staying at the end of his quite long reach, and ensured he was either spinning away or ducking well beneath their plane by the time they went whipping past.

In round 8, Vazquez added a dull new wrinkle to his attack, staying at range till Gesta dropped his guard, and then rushing in with both hands, landing a clean punch or two, and tying Gesta up. Gesta appeared not to have the wherewithal or desire to fight his way out of the awkward Mexican’s awkward clinches, and the next three rounds passed without incident or emotion.

The final round passed exactly as its 11 predecessors had, with Vazquez, a professional counterpuncher and winner, if not entertainer, boxing, moving, clinching and confusing his way to another successful title defense.

JAVIER FORTUNA VS. PATRICK HYLAND
It was a battle of undefeated fighters, and while neither guy wanted to lose, neither guy wanted to win much either. The partisan-Mexican crowd that half-filled the arena did not appreciate it.

In the first televised match of Saturday’s pay-per-view telecast, Dominican featherweight Javier Fortuna (21-0, 15 KOs) decisioned limited Irishman Patrick Hyland (27-1, 12 KOs) by unanimous scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 115-113. Fortuna, who appeared a little unstable both at Friday’s weighin and points of Saturday’s fight, fell on his back in celebration upon hearing the decision.

The fight began badly, and after two dreadful rounds that saw neither man engage and Fortuna in hands-down retreat, a lowblow made things briefly interesting and Fortuna briefly more offensive in the third. That brief display of offense by Fortuna was more than enough for Hyland to put his own fists away and spend two rounds focused on defense, blocking and ducking, and generally not punching.

In round 7, after 18 minutes of routine booing from the Garden Arena crowd, Hyland appeared to close space slightly and land a few decent right hands on the southpaw Dominican. The eighth brought increased fatigue to both men, which brought actual infighting and enough action for the crowd to cease its hectoring, if not increase its cheers.

The ninth saw a pair of unintentional fouls send Fortuna reeling to a neutral corner, followed by the entire fight’s best minute of sustained combat, as each man briefly took the other’s punches personally before returning to less-belligerent form. The 10th had the less-talented Hyland appearing to want to fight, and the more-talented Fortuna demonstratively displeased with anything that wasn’t clean punching.

The championship rounds passed uneventfully, with neither man daring to do anything daring, as the championship being contested was only the WBA interim featherweight title after all.

UNDERCARD
Saturday’s swing bout, a four-round scrap between local featherweight Alexis Hernandez (3-1, 1 KO) and New Mexican Jazzma Hogue (2-4-1) did not last long and did not look pretty, with Hernandez prevailing by TKO at 2:20 of round 1.

Before that, U.S. Olympian Jose Ramirez (1-0, 1 KO), a lightweight from California, made his professional debut against designated victim Corey Siegwarth (2-2, 1 KO) of Colorado. Charging out his corner and swarming Siegwarth from the opening bell, Ramirez moved well and threw punches in combination while showing good defense, stopping Siegwarth at 2:05 of round 1. As many clean punches as Ramirez needed to finish Siegwarth, time will tell how much power he has brought with him to the pro ranks.

Saturday’s second match saw Filipino featherweight Dodie Boy Penalosa (10-0, 10 KOs) stop Floridian Jesus Lule-Raya (2-2) suddenly and violently at 1:12 of round 2. Undefeated as he is, and with his victories coming the way they do, it will be interesting to see how Penalosa’s coming improvement in competition goes.

The evening began with a surprisingly two-sided affair between Filipino super featherweight Ernie Sanchez (14-3, 5 KOs) and Philadelphian Coy Evans (10-2-1, 2 KOs). Both men were hurt early in the fight, with Evans being sent to the mat by a right hand from Sanchez, but neither succumbed to the other’s numerous but light punches, and Sanchez prevailed by unanimous decision: 78-73, 78-73 and 77-74.

Opening bell rang on an empty MGM Grand Garden Arena at 4:06 PM local time.

LAS VEGAS – Evidence of Juan Manuel Marquez’ new found power is circulating like an ominous preview in video of his brutal stoppage of a sparring partner. But Manny Pacquiao hasn’t seen it. Won’t lose any sleep thinking about it.

“I’m not worried about it,’’ Pacquiao said Friday after the formal weigh-in for his fourth fight Saturday night with Marquez at the MGM Grand. “I took Antonio Margarito’s best punch.’’

In the sixth round of a 2010 victory over Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex., Pacquiao was rocked by left hook to the body. It was one of the punches Margarito had used with devastating efficiency throughout his career as a brawler.

“I was lucky to survive that round,’’ Pacquiao said then.

In a lesson delivered by Margarito’s left hand, Pacquiao might have experience and confidence to go along with the luck he’ll need against Marquez.

Sellout equals heavyweight standard
Top Rank announced Friday that it had sold out the MGM’s Grand Garden Arena’s 16,000-plus seats for Marquez-Pacquiao. Promoter Bob Arum said the gate would generate more than $10.6 million. More than $10 million in tickets were sold for the third Marquez-Pacquiao fight, also at the MGM Grand.

It’s the first time rematches have done more than $10 million at the gate for each bout since Evander Holyfield beat Mike Tyson in 1996 and beat him again in 1997 at the cost of an ear lobe, also at the MGM Grand.

Notes, quotes
· Tyson was introduced to a noisy, cheering crowd at the weigh-in. The former heavyweight champ asked fans to support his charitable foundation, Mike Tyson Cares. Meanwhile, he’s getting ready to take his Broadway show on a national tour of 36 cities. “I’m like Frankenstein,’’ Tyson said. “A lot of people have put me together.’’

· After stepping off the scale, Pacquiao, a Filipino Congressman and Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve, dedicated Saturday night’s fight on HBO’s pay-per-view television to fellow Filipinos hit by Typhoon Bopha. There were reports Friday of than 500 dead and 400 missing. There 310,000 left homeless.

· Former welterweight rivals Tommy Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard are in Las Vegas for Chapter IV in the Pacquiao-Marquez rivalry. Hearns picks Pacquiao to win. Leonard played it safe. He didn’t pick anybody.

LAS VEGAS – It was not particularly eventful, far as these things go – two muscular men stripped to their underwear, stepped on a scale, had their weights read, dismounted, and posed shirtless for photographers beneath the stage – but it was not entirely without event. Mike Tyson saw to that.

Friday afternoon at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Filipino welterweight Manny Pacquiao and his career nemesis, Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez, each made weight for their Saturday fight, a match that will complete a storied tetralogy in the very venue where it began.

Pacquiao made the welterweight limit of 147 pounds. Marquez came in three pounds below at 143.

“It’s going to be a war,” Marquez said immediately afterwards. “It’s going to be a war.”

If the fight will be the battle Marquez promised, he is the man who appears to have the heavier artillery this time. As part of a controversial strength and conditioning regimen conducted in Mexico with a controversial strength and conditioning coach, Marquez has added a significant quotient of muscle in his recent training camps and removed fat while doing it – a feat once believed nigh impossible for a man approaching his 40th birthday, as Marquez now does.

It is an edge Marquez, 0-2-1 in his three matches with Pacquiao, believes will mark the necessary “grain” of difference he needs.

“I would like to pray for all the families affected by the storm in the Philippines,” said Pacquiao, after making weight, replying to a question about a natural disaster that struck his native land this month. “I am dedicating this fight to them.”

Pacquiao, who looked very good, if not muscular as Marquez, Friday, has downplayed his opponent’s noteworthy growth in the last 15 months, answering questions about Marquez’s size with appeals to larger men Pacquiao has fought, and bigger punchers, too.

That may be, but did any of them have a history of hitting Pacquiao often or accurately as Marquez does?

“Not the biggest fight, possibly,” Marquez said of Saturday’s fourth match with Pacquiao and its place in his career. “The most important.”

Asked if, as a congressman in the Philippines, he still had the “fire in his belly” required to beat up a prizefighter gifted, dedicated and fixated on victory as Marquez is, Pacquiao was terse but adamant.

“Yes, sir,” he said.

Friday’s weighin, while not the fire-marshal-bar-the-doors affair previous Pacquiao weighins have been, was well-attended by what sounded like a partisan-Mexican crowd. Also in attendance was world middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, who kept a characteristically low profile.

Keeping a characteristically higher profile was former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, in town, and in MGM Grand, to promote and perform “Mike Tyson Cares: Giving Kids a Fighting Chance,” a show Tyson will host at MGM Grand’s Tabu Ultra Lounge, Friday night.

Tyson, whose euphoria at being on stage for a superfight weighin was pronounced, as evidenced by his constant smile and interaction with undercard fighters throughout, spent only a moment center-stage, waving and bowing to loud applause, then saying: “And make sure you come out!”

Doors for “Pacquiao-Marquez 4,” an eight-match card, will open at 3:00 PM local time, with opening bell scheduled to ring at 3:45. The four-fight pay-per-view televised portion of the card will begin at 6:00 PM. 15rounds.com will have full ringside coverage.

Manny Pacquiao 147 – Juan Manuel Marquez 143
Yuriorkis Gamboa 130 – Michael Ferenas 130
Patrick Hyland 126 – Javier Fortuna 126

Photps by Chris Farina / Top Rank

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (December 7, 2012) – The people have spoken and they voted unanimously for Saturday’s welterweight battle between MANNY PACQUIAO and JUAN MANUEL MÁRQUEZ 4 — Act Four of their exciting and fistoric rivalry. Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum announced today that the MGM Grand Garden Arena and its 16,000-plus seats have completely sold out, producing a live gate in excess of $10.5 million.

“Manny and Juan Manuel may have unfinished business in the ring, but as far as the live box office, it’s business as usual – another sellout,” said Arum. “I encourage boxing fans in Las Vegas to go to their favorite MGM Resort International property to purchase their closed-circuit seats today because the projections are looking like a sell out there too.”

Pacquiao vs. Márquez 4 will be available via closed circuit at the following MGM Resorts International Las Vegas properties: ARIA, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Monte Carlo, New York-New York and Circus Circus. Tickets are priced at $50, not including applicable service charges. All seats will be general admission and will be available at each individual property’s box office.

Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs), of the Philippines, and Márquez (54-6-1, 39 KOs), of México, who have won world titles in 12 weight divisions between them, will go mano a mano and toe-to-toe in a 12-round welterweight battle.

******************************

The finale of the all-new editions of HBO’s all-access reality series 24/7 PACQUIAO/MARQUEZ 4 debuts Tonight! Friday, December 7 (8:00-8:30 p.m. ET/PT), the night before the high-stakes welterweight showdown. All four episodes will have multiple replay dates on HBO, and the series will also be available on HBO On Demand and HBO GO®.

Pacquiao-Márquez 4 is promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, Zanfer Promotions, Márquez Boxing, Tecate, Wonderful Pistachios, Cinemax ‘Banshee,’ Smart Communications, Universal Pictures ‘Django Unchained’ and MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.

The Pacquiao vs. Márquez 4 telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com and at www.facebook.com/hboboxing. Use the hashtag #PacMarquez to join the conversation on Twitter. For Pacquiao vs. Márquez updates, log on to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com.

Boxing’s most contentious rivalry is set to end with a knockout this Saturday night, live on Primetime (Channel 498 on Sky & Virgin On Demand).

Both Manny Pacquiao and Mexican warrior Juan Manuel Marquez insist that they will flatten the other to conclusively prove who the superior fighter is as they clash for the fourth time in Las Vegas.

The previous three fights have all gone the 12 round distance and despite a draw in their initial encounter in 2004, and Pacquiao winning closely contested points decisions in the other two, the matchups have been the subject of much controversy.

Despite Pacquiao catching the judges’ eyes, many experts and fight fans believe that Marquez has been the rightful victor in their past encounters.

However, despite not getting the rub of the green, Marquez is adamant that this time round he has the tools to stop it going to the scorecards.

“A lot of people know what happened in the last three fights but I’ve prepared myself very hard because I want to give another great show. After this fight it might be the end of the chapters,” said Marquez.

“I’m trying to look for the knockout. Pacquiao said he wants to knock me out but I want to knockout him out. Manny is a strong fighter, he’s maybe the toughest I’ve fought. But I’m ready for this fight. I’ve trained very hard and I’m in great condition for the twelve rounds.

“This is the most interesting fight. I know I need to change something because he knows me – I need a perfect performance,” he said.

The Filipino star, who is regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, claims he will be going into this bout as the aggressor, in a fight he believes will be the last between the two.

“We changed a little bit of our strategy for this fight. We studied his style and we’re ready for him. He knows how I like to fight which is getting in and out so I will be trying to counter-punch more,” said Pacquiao.

“My focus is on more aggression and if I have the chance to finish the fight early I will grab it. Marquez never accepted that he lost the last three fights so it’s up to me to show him in this one,” added the eight-division world champion.

Pacquiao vs. Marquez is live on Primetime for £14.95 this Sunday morning at 2am. To order visit www.primetimelive.co.uk or call 0871 200 4444.

LAS VEGAS – Threat of a lawsuit is little bit like opening bell. Hear one and you can be sure the fight is about to begin.

Opening bell for the fourth chapter Saturday in the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez rivalry was still a couple of days away, but the lawsuit threat echoed Thursday through the MGM Grand’s press room with a buzz that said only fury will settle the differences that divide the opposing camps.

Marquez’ controversial strength coach Angel Heredia promised to sue Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach for comments in USA Today that implied the heavily-muscled Marquez had been using performance enhancers. Roach didn’t need to consult an attorney for his response.

“He’s a piece of bleep,’’ said Roach, who also called Heredia “a rat” during roundtable sessions with the trainer.

Flush the legalese.

It’s hard to know whether Heredia is just posturing or has been caught up in the hyperbole that always intensifies during the countdown for a major bout. He’s a relative newcomer to boxing’s outhouse. But Heredia’s notorious resume is accented with inevitable questions. During the Balco scandal, he testified he had a role in giving PEDS to Olympic track-and-field medalists, including Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

Roach reads the testimony, looks at the bulked-up Marquez and says what many fans are thinking. No surprise there. Roach, a Hall of Fame veteran of fight-week hype, might be using the moment to play some mind games. That’s as fundamental as a feint. Whatever he was doing, Heredia’s anger is enough to wonder if it has entered into his conversation with Marquez and trainer Nacho Beristain.

“We’re going to meet up with my lawyers,’’ Heredia told the media Wednesday after a formal news conference.

If there is a meeting about anything other than how to beat Pacquiao for the first time, then Roach will have succeeded in throwing the first feint.

Notes, Quotes, Anecdotes
The intensity of the Pacquiao-Marquez rivalry makes it impossible to predict how their relationship will be after the final bell. “My relationship with him is one of respect,’’ Marquez said. “It will always be inside the ring. But outside of the ring?’’ Marquez left some doubt about whether they could be friends. “That’s his problem,’’ Pacquiao said.

Purses: According to contracts filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Marquez is guaranteed $3 million and Pacquiao $8.595 million. That doesn’t count the international money. Bob Arum says Pacquiao will collect at least $26 million after it’s all counted. “We haven’t knocked out anybody lately and we got a loss in our last fight,’’ Roach said of Pacquiao’s controversial loss by decision to Tim Bradley in June. “So we’re taking a cut in pay.’’

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

LAS VEGAS – Distractions and Manny Pacquiao have been inseparable for at least a year. But it’s beginning to look as if he has discarded that piece of troublesome baggage.

The distracted Pacquiao was gone Thursday. In his place, there was the engaging personality remembered for entering the ring with the smile of a kid headed to a few rounds on the playground.

“He’s having fun,’’ Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach said before a formal news conference at the MGM Grand. “When he’s having fun, he’s hard to beat.’’

Little about a rivalry just a few days from a fourth fight, also at the MGM Grand, looks like much fun. Through 36 rounds, Pacquiao has the edge with two controversial decisions and a draw. But instead of celebration, there’s been controversy. Marquez argues the ledger should read 3-0 in his favor.

“He claims he won,’’ Pacquiao said. “He needs to prove something. I wanted to give him that chance. Maybe he can prove something.’’

The momentum, at least, seems to be on Marquez’ side, especially if the rivalry stretches to 48 rounds in an HBO pay-per-view bout. Much of the public agrees with Marquez, enough perhaps to finally swing the scorecards in his favor.

“My motivation is that I want them to raise my hand in the ring,’’ said Marquez, who showed up at the interview session in a crowded lounge off the casino floor looking edgy in a down jacket that was zipped all the way up to his scarred chin. “I don’t want people to just say, ‘You really beat him.’

“I want them to know that I beat him.’’

For Pacquiao, there might be only one way to do that:

By knockout.

But can he? In 2004, Pacquiao knocked Marquez down three times in the first round. Yet, Marquez managed to recover, rally and fight to a draw. Both have moved up the scale, from featherweight to lightweight for the first rematch and 144 pounds for the third fight. Along the way, there’s speculation that Pacquiao lost some power, or at least enough of it to cut his chances at stopping Marquez from good to negligible.

But Roach says Pacquiao was still an evolving fighter in 2004, meaning he didn’t possess the right hand he developed against David Diaz in 2008. Before their third fight in November, 2011, there were Pacquiao’s well-documented distractions, including marital problems and political campaigns.

“I still say Marquez hasn’t seen the best Manny,’’ Roach said. “This time he will.’’

Evidence of that, Roach said, came in training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif. Pacquiao knocked down sparring partners four times. There were zero knockdowns in training for Pacquaio’s controversial loss to Tim Bradley. There were none in camp for his majority decision over Pacquiao about 13 months ago. Pacquiao hasn’t knocked down a sparring partner since training for his 12th-round stoppage of Miguel Cotto in 2009.

“Manny said he wanted to go back to the Manny of 2004,’’ Roach said. “I wasn’t sure that was possible. But he’s had four knockdowns in training. He’s on fire right now.’’

But Marquez has found a way to cool that fire with counter-punching that interrupts pace and prevents the instinctive Pacquiao from getting into a rhythm, an unstoppable roll. There’s also the simple issue of Marquez’ muscle-bound upper-body, thanks to controversial strength coach Angel Heredia.

Heredia, who joined Marquez for the third fight, testified in the Balco case that he provided performance-enhancers to Olympic track-and-field medalists. Heredia’s presence raises inevitable questions. They were there in 2011 and they are back a year later. Marquez, annoyed at all of the questioning, has told the media he is prepared to undergo testing. In the PED swamp, however, there are always rumors and suspicions. Ask Lance Armstrong.

Mexican promoter Fernando Beltran introduced Marquez in a way that only makes you wonder about the relationship with Heredia.

“Built like Hulk,’’ Beltran said.

It might be hard to knock down Hulk. It’ll be harder to knock him out.

But Roach has his own theory.

“You put on a lot of muscle for a reason,’’ Roach said. “If he wants to exchange, that’ll be better for us.’’

ESPN is presenting comprehensive multi-platform pre- and post-fight coverage of the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez 4 bout scheduled for December 8 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. ESPN Deportes and SportsCenter are on site to provide daily news and information.

As part of ESPN and HBO Sports’ multi-year boxing programming and marketing agreement, ESPN news and information platforms will have access to key content, including post-fight, in-ring interviews, HBO’s behind-the-scenes four-part series 24/7 Pacquiao-Marquez 4, and Marquez-Pacquiao non-televised undercard fights (ESPN3).

Pacquiao-Marquez 4 Coverage Across ESPN Platforms:

· ESPN Deportes’ Una Semana Desde Las Vegas (one week from Las Vegas)

Television:

o Golpe a Golpe: Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 8 p.m. and through the week, David Faitelson, Jose Ramon Fernandez, Bernardo Osuna, Jorge Eduardo Sanchez, and Kary Correa anchor from Las Vegas.

o Cronometro: Wednesday, Dec. 5 through Friday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m., Faitelson and Fernandez discuss the latest news in sports from Las Vegas, with special segments around the bout.

o Raza Deportiva & Nación ESPN: Wednesday, Dec. 5 through Friday, Dec. 7 at 10 a.m. & 10 p.m. respectively, Faitelson to host both shows from Las Vegas through the entire week.

o A Los Golpes: Monday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m., Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., David Faitelson and Osuna provide in-depth analysis and discussion of the results.

ESPN Deportes Radio: Miguel Angel Cebreros hosts radio boxing talk show A Los Golpes from Las Vegas and reports for ESPN Deportes Radio’s SportsCenter.

ESPNDeportes.com: Carlos Nava reports from Las Vegas. Content includes: historical analysis of both fighters, video blogs and podcasts from Vegas, press conference coverage, interviews, opinion, fight preview, post analysis, video recap and live updates.

24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4 (ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Classic, ESPN.com and online through WatchESPN.com, and on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app, see schedule below): HBO Sports’ all-access reality series, follows both fighters as they prepare for their fourth meeting.

Pacquiao-Marquez non-televised undercard fights (ESPN3; Saturday, Dec.8, 7 p.m.): ESPN’s multiscreen network accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and through ESPN on Xbox LIVE to Gold members.

· ESPN Boxing: Friday Night Fights Special Edition (ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, WatchESPN, Thursday, Dec. 6, at 10 p.m.): Studio host Bernardo Osuna will be on site at the Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas when Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas describe the action between ESPN.com’s No. 8 ranked Lightweight contender Ray Beltran (26-6, 17 KOs) and former Lightweight title challenger Ji-Hoon “Volcano” Kim (24-7, 18 KOs) in the 10-round main event. Alex Pombo and Delvin Rodriguez will call the fights for ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates (Friday Night Fights) with Leopoldo Gonzalez and Pablo Viruega in the studio.

Pacquiao-Marquez I-II-III (ESPN Deportes, ESPN Classic, see schedule below): re-airs of their first three fights.

· On-Site Presence Dec. 5-9 (SportsCenter): ESPN’s Friday Night Fights’ studio host Osuna and ESPN.com boxing writer Dan Rafael report.

· 1-on-1 with Pacquiao (SportsCenter): Jeremy Schaap interviews Pacquiao.

· Pacquiao-Marquez Press Conference (SportsCenter, ESPN3, ESPN Deportes, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 3 p.m.): will include Osuna interviews with each fighter.

· Live Interviews (SportsCenter Thursday, Dec. 6): Pacquaio 3:20 p.m.; Marquez 4:20 p.m.

· “Atlas Fight Plan” (ESPN’s Friday Night Fights; SportsCenter) analyst Teddy Atlas will illustrate what each fighter needs to do to win.

· Pacquiao-Marquez Weigh-In (SportsCenter, ESPN3, ESPN Deportes, Friday, Dec. 7, 6:15 p.m.): will include Osuna 1-on-1 interviews with each fighter and a Rafael “Instant Analysis.”

· Teddy Atlas Analysis (SportsCenter, Dec. 7-8) The Friday Night Fights analyst and former trainer will appear on shows previewing the fight.

· Pre-fight Reports (SportsCenter, ESPN Deportes’ Golpe a Golpe, Saturday, Dec. 8,): Osuna and Rafael report live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena; in-locker room reports.

· Round-by-Round Scoring (SportsCenter, throughout the fight): Rafael’s scoring at the end of each round.

· Post-fight Coverage (SportsCenter, ESPN Deportes’ Golpe a Golpe): will include a Rafael “Instant Analysis”; Osuna interviews with each fighter; live press conference coverage; expanded highlights.

· #TeamPacquiao vs. #TeamMarquez (@ESPN Twitter and ESPN Facebook; Fight week): ESPN will ask its Twitter followers why they’re for #TeamPacquiao or #TeamMarquez, and re-Tweet the best replies; share Facebook cover images and Twitter avatars that announce someone as either #TeamPacquiao or #TeamMarquez.

· ESPN The Magazine (newsstands Friday, November 30): Schaap’s interview with Pacquiao is featured in ESPN The Magazine’s “Interview” issue highlighting 2012 newsmakers. Schaap discussed his interview with Pacquiao in detail with The Mag’s Editor in Chief Chad Millman on his weekly podcast.

· ESPN Radio and ESPN Los Angeles 710: ESPN Radio will present news leading up to the fight, as well as SportsCenter updates during the fight and immediate results; 710’s Max & Marcellus (3-7 p.m. PT, M-F) will originate from Las Vegas Thursday and Friday.

· ESPN.com

o Fight reviews: Pacquiao and Marquez provide analysis of their first three fights, and then look ahead to No. 4.

o Fight Credential: An all-access pass to ESPN.com’s prefight, live and postfight coverage.

Cover It Live: ESPN.com’s live blog of fight-night action from the MGM Grand on Dec. 8.

· Marquez 1-on-1 (ESPNFrontRow.com, December 7): Marquez discusses (In Spanish) the fight and doubling as an ESPN Deportes analyst for ESPN’s blog site.

Schedule of Pacquiao-Marquez 4 Coverage Across ESPN Platforms:

Date
Time (ET)
Coverage
Platform

Wed, Dec 5
3 p.m.
Pacquiao-Marquez Press Conference
ESPN3, SportsCenter, ESPN Deportes

7:30 p.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 2
ESPN Deportes

8 p.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 1
ESPN Classic

8:30 p.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 2
ESPN Classic

9 p.m.
Pacquiao vs. Marquez I
ESPN Classic

Thur, Dec 6
3:20 and 4:20
Live Pacquiao-Marquez Interviews
SportsCenter

7 p.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 2
ESPN Classic

7:30 p.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 3
ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes

8 p.m.
Pacquiao vs. Marquez II
ESPN Classic

10 p.m.
ESPN Boxing: Friday Night Fights Special Edition
ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, WatchESPN

Fri, Dec 7
12 a.m.
Pacquiao vs. Marquez III
ESPN Classic

1 a.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 2
ESPN Classic

1:30 a.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 3
ESPN Classic

4 a.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 1
ESPN Deportes

4:30 a.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 2
ESPN Deportes

5 a.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 3
ESPN Deportes

In the morning
Marquez 1-on-1

ESPNFrontRow.com
ESPNFrontRow.com

12 p.m.
Pacquiao vs. Marquez I
ESPN Deportes

1 p.m.
Pacquiao vs. Marquez II
ESPN Deportes

2 p.m.
Pacquiao vs. Marquez III
ESPN Deportes

6 p.m.
Pacquiao- Marquez Live Weigh-In
ESPN3, SportsCenter

7 p.m.
Pacquiao vs. Marquez III
ESPN Classic

Sat, Dec 8
12:30 a.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 3
ESPN2, WatchESPN

1 a.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 4
ESPN2, WatchESPN

3 p.m.
Pacquiao vs. Marquez I
ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes

4 p.m.
Pacquiao vs. Marquez II
ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes

5 p.m.
Pacquiao vs. Marquez III
ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes

6 p.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 1
ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes

6:30 p.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 2
ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes

7 p.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 3
ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes

7 p.m.
Pacquiao- Marquez Undercard
ESPN3

7:30 p.m.
24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez 4

Episode 4
ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes

7:30 p.m.
Pre-Fight Reports
SportsCenter

8 p.m.
Golpe a Golpe live pre-fight show
ESPN Deportes

Throughout the fight
Round-by-Round Scoring
SportsCenter

Sun, Dec. 9
Following the fight
Post-Fight Coverage
SportsCenter

2 a.m.
Golpe a Golpe live post-fight show
ESPN Deportes

I did not expect to look forward to this week’s fourth match between Filipino Manny Pacquiao and Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez. I submitted my credential request, booked my flight to Las Vegas and reserved my hotel room for Dec. 8 under a spell of grim determination, not euphoria; this would make a tetralogy of the rivalry for which this era of prizefighting will be remembered, and I should witness it if I am able. I am now excited, though, because of an unlikely source – the third episode of HBO’s “24/7” program – and its subversion of a usually reliable imperviousness to hype. We’ll return.

What is likeliest to happen Saturday is another close fight, but one Pacquiao rightfully wins with hustle, followed by a set of scorecards that give Marquez a comfortable decision. Pacquiao has lost his novelty in Las Vegas, and while Marquez ever had little, the Mexican has at least gone to the trouble of reengineering his body in a Vegas-like way, erecting in just 15 months a breathtaking spectacle nature will raze in five years (or at least by the time Marquez arrrives in Canastota). That and previous scoring shenanigans make Marquez, for once, a more appealing figure in Las Vegas than Pacquiao.

In his exhaustive reevaluation of art history, British writer Paul Johnson opines of this week’s host city: “Nothing in Las Vegas is built to last except the roulette wheels. It is a city which, architecturally, is always in the immediate present, never in the past or future. It is Ephemeropolis.” In Johnson’s sense, neither Pacquiao nor Marquez is very much an Ephemeropolis fighter. Both have, in their ways, endeavored to be more permanent figures than Las Vegas generally appreciates; their careers cannot be divided in chapters named after trainers the way Oscar De La Hoya’s can be, they haven’t the shamelessness or salesmanship of American heavyweights, and they both lack Floyd Mayweather’s capacity for reinvention. Both are for the most part beneficiaries of a meritocracy, and while each now comes to the logical ends of his meriting millions of dollars to fight, both have, with very few exceptions, deserved the fortunes they’ve amassed as entertainers who combat honestly the men put in front of them.

If you did not see Saturday’s episode of HBO’s “24/7” program, if after the preceding week’s absurd Filipino donut-vending and Mexican jumpy-jump partying, you vowed never to watch another moment of the “24/7” franchise, you are, of course, forgiven, though also surprisingly unfortunate. Saturday’s episode was an unpredicted return to what camp footage made the series’ 2007 introduction compelling. It wasn’t choreographed handpad tricks and portentous stretching, either, but actual punching in combination, with the camera acting more as reporter than novelist.

Saturday’s episode did an uncharacteristically good job of examining the relationships between the fighters and their monkish trainers, with Freddie Roach admitting and then recanting that Pacquiao has become the boss of his camps, a degree of control, one can extrapolate, inversely proportionate to the quality of Pacquiao’s fighting since his 2009 stoppage of Miguel Cotto. More interesting still was a very short clip of Nacho Beristain giving Marquez, whom Beristain has trained for more than 20 years and made this generation’s master of efficient motion, a direct instruction:

“Throw right uppercut, hook, straight right,” Beristain said, and then he raised his finger as an instructor. “But parallel, Juan, the shoulders, principally (when throwing) the hook.”

There was no question who was the boss so long as Marquez wore gloves, a supplicant position in which Marquez voluntarily and fully places himself and Pacquiao once did more than he does today. Roach, by episode’s end, committed to restoring balance in his gym, but one could see Pacquiao’s annoyance with interruptions of his private rhythm and strategizing. Roach, in an enthusiastic pursuit of wealth and celebrity, has seen his relationship with Pacquiao revised while taking on charges like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., unwilling to submit long to privation, and Amir Khan, unable to succeed with any punch-to-hurt curriculum, such that aficionados, and Roach himself, now openly question Roach’s primacy among trainers.

While there is little doubt Roach understands what Pacquiao must do to beat Marquez well as Beristain does, there does not appear a same technical fluency between Roach and Pacquiao as between Beristain and Marquez. Some of that is inevitable, with Roach and Pacquiao not sharing a native language like Beristain and Marquez do, but much of it is this: Roach did not teach Pacquiao how to box; he took a physical prodigy and improved him. Beristain, conversely, can query from his mind’s database the exact image of a teenage Marquez learning where to put his feet on the blue mat, and phrase precisely a problem whose solving will have Marquez position Marquez how Beristain wishes him.

Expect little new from either man Saturday. Though Pacquiao’s reflexes and conditioning will not be what they were in 2009 they will remain superior enough to outbusy Marquez if he so chooses, and that is Pacquiao’s best way of winning a third decision, on an objective scorecard. Marquez will be exactly what he was in fights I, II and III, and if he repeats his performance from 13 months ago, it says here, he’ll win comfortably on official scorecards. The only possibility for novelty this match holds is if Marquez, now physically enhanced enough to redden all faces at the Nevada State Athletic Commission, hurts Pacquiao. There is no better closer in boxing than Marquez – and a tetralogy that ended with Pacquiao felled thrice would be historic in its symmetry first of all.

That is too unlikely. So I’ll take Pacquiao, this time, in a fight the judges score for Marquez.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com.

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (November 29, 2012) – With the Manny Pacquiao – Juan Manuel Márquez 4 welterweight rumble projected to be a sellout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Top Rank announced today that the pay-per-view portion of the card would be available in Las Vegas via closed-circuit at the following MGM Resorts International properties: ARIA, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Monte Carlo, New York-New York and Circus Circus.

Closed circuit tickets to Pacquiao-Marquez 4 priced at $50, not including applicable service charges, go on sale This Monday! December 3 at 10 a.m. PT. All seats will be general admission and will be available at each individual property’s box office outlets.

Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, Zanfer Promotions, Márquez Boxing, Tecate, Wonderful Pistachios, Cinemax ‘Banshee,’ Smart Communications, Universal Pictures ‘Django Unchained’ and MGM Grand, remaining MGM Grand Garden Arena tickets to Pacquiao-Márquez 4 are priced at $1,200, $900 and $400. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at all MGM Resorts box offices and online at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

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All-new editions of HBO’s all-access reality series 24/7 PACQUIAO/MARQUEZ 4 debut on Saturday, December 1 (9:30-10:00 p.m. ET/PT) – while the finale debuts Friday, December 7 (8:00-8:30 p.m. ET/PT), the night before the high-stakes welterweight showdown. All four episodes will have multiple replay dates on HBO, and the series will also be available on HBO On Demand and HBO GO®.

Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs), of the Philippines, and Juan Manuel Márquez (54-6-1, 39 KOs), of México, who have won world titles in 12 weight divisions between them, will go mano a mano and toe-to-toe, for the fourth time, in a 12-round welterweight battle, Saturday, December 8, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.

The Pacquiao vs. Márquez 4 telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com and at www.facebook.com/hboboxing. Use the hashtag #PacMarquez to join the conversation on Twitter. For Pacquiao vs. Márquez updates, log on to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. (November 28, 2012) – He came, he starred, he conquered. And This Friday! November 30, at Midnight ET/PT, on ABC, he will be RERUN! Fighter of the Decade and boxing’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter and box office attraction Congressman MANNY “PacMan” PACQUIAO took time from training for his upcoming rumble with three-division world champion Juan Manuel Márquez to make another boffo appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! last Wednesday night. The response by fans and the word of mouth on the interview and especially the spectacularly funny spoof of HBO’s all-access reality series 24/7 — Pacquiao/Rodriguez 4 24/7 — spurred the show’s unusually fast encore airing of the episode. (Photos of Pacquiao and Kimmel attached. Please credit: ABC)

After catching up with Manny on his life and training for his upcoming high-stakes welterweight battle against Márquez, Kimmel announced Manny’s next fight — against sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez — with his own all-access unreality segment, Pacquiao/Rodriguez 4 24/7, which also featured Rodriguez’s trainer Yehya, Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum and Hall of Fame trainer World-Famous Freddie Roach.

Pacquiao-Rodriguez 4 24/7 Clip: http://youtu.be/r0qVfibFdmo

This was Manny’s seventh consecutive appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in as many pay-per-view promotions, dating back to November 3, 2009, when he knocked out Miguel Cotto to claim the welterweight title. That 2009 appearance also marked Manny’s U.S. network TV debut, which has since led to a multitude of network television, radio and magazine features, including, CBS’ 60 Minutes, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, ABC’s Nightline, FOX News Channel’s On The Record With Greta Van Susteren, CNN’s America Morning, NPR’s Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, Playboy, Sports Illustrated and cover stories in TIME and Newsweek.

**************************************

Pacquiao and Roach are in deep training for Act Four of their exciting and fistoric rivalry with Juan Manuel Márquez. Pacquiao and Márquez, who have won world titles in 12 weight divisions between them, will go mano a mano and toe-to-toe in a high-stakes welterweight showdown, Saturday, December 8, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.

Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, Zanfer Promotions, Márquez Boxing, Tecate, Wonderful Pistachios, Cinemax ‘Banshee,’ Smart Communications, Universal Pictures ‘Django Unchained’ and MGM Grand, Pacquiao-Márquez 4 will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View®.

All-new editions of HBO’s all-access reality series 24/7 PACQUIAO/MARQUEZ 4 debut on Saturday, December 1 (9:30-10:00 p.m. ET/PT) – while the finale debuts Friday, December 7 (8:00-8:30 p.m. ET/PT), the night before the high-stakes welterweight showdown. All four episodes will have multiple replay dates on HBO, and the series will also be available on HBO On Demand and HBO GO®.

Remaining tickets to Pacquiao-Márquez 4 are priced at $1,200, $900, $600, $400, and $200. Ticket sales at $1,200, $900, $600 and $400 are limited to 10 per person and ticket sales at $200 are limited to two (2) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

The Pacquiao-Márquez 4 telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com and at www.facebook.com/hboboxing. Use the hashtag #PacMarquez to join the conversation on Twitter. For Pacquiao vs. Márquez updates, log on to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com.

Photos By Chris Farina / Top Rank

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (November 26, 2012) — The Manny Pacquiao-Juan Mánuel Márquez 4 pay-per-view undercard will feature three world championship battles, the professional debut of the gem of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, and a little Snooki on the side.

Promoted by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who will be making his promotional debut, undefeated former World Featherweight Champion YURIORKIS GAMBOA, of Cuba, will take on Top-10 contender MICHAEL FARENAS, of the Philippines, for the World Boxing Association (WBA) interim super featherweight title; JAVIER FORTUNA of the Dominican Republic will rumble with Snooki-promoted PATRICK HYLAND of Ireland, in a battle of undefeated contenders, with the WBA interim featherweight title at stake; International Boxing Federation (IBF) lightweight champion MIGUEL VAZQUEZ of México will defend his crown against undefeated Top-Five contender MERCITO GESTA of the Philippines; and the highly-decorated Méxican-American amateur sensation and 2012 U.S. Olympian JOSE RAMÍREZ, of Avenal, Calif, will be making his professional debut in a four-round lightweight bout.

The six professional warriors boast a combined record of 159-6-5 (95 KOs) – a winning percentage of 94%.

Gamboa (21-0, 16 KO), the former world featherweight champion who won Olympic gold in 2004 for his native Cuba and now resides in Miami, Fla., will make his 2012 debut having won eight of his previous 11 fights by stoppage. He boasts world title victories over Orlando Salido, Jonathan Barros, Jorge Solis and Rogers Mtagwa. Farenas (33-3-4, 25 KOs), of Paranque City, Philippines, is managed by former two-division world champion and Filipino icon Gerry Peñalosa, trained by Pacquiao’s assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez and promoted by Pacquiao’s MP Promotions. With only one loss in his previous 29 bouts, 17 of his last 24 victories have come by way of knockout. Farena enters this fight after challenging undefeated WBA super featherweight champion Takashi Uchiyama, on July 16, in a hotly-contested fight was stopped in the third round when the defending champion suffered a bad cut over his right eye due to a head butt. This was declared a technical draw.

Fortuna (20-0, 15 KOs), of La Romana, Dominican Republic, has won five of his last seven bouts by knockout. The former WBC Youth featherweight champion, who is promoted by Sampson Boxing, enters his first world championship fight rated No. 2 by the WBA.

Hyland (27-0, 12 KOs), of Dublin, Ireland, is promoted by MTV “Jersey Shore” star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and her company Team Snooki Boxing. A former Irish and IBF International featherweight champion, The Pride of Ireland has won all three of his fights this year en route to his career-high No. 6 rating in the WBA.

Vazquez (32-3, 13 KOs), of Guadalajara, México, captured the vacant IBF lightweight title in 2010 winning a unanimous decision over Ji-Hoon Kim. He has successfully defended his crown four times during his two-year reign, most recently against Marvin Quintero on October 27. Gesta (26-0-1, 14 KOs), of Cebu, Philippines, has been touted as the boxing heir-apparent to Pacquiao. He hasn’t gone the distance in a fight in over a year having won all his 2012 bouts by knockout. He is currently world-rated No. 5 by the IBF.

Ramírez, 20, who began boxing when he was 8, surpassed Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Shane Mosley to become USA Boxing’s all-time lightweight record holder. The No. 1-rated amateur lightweight in the U.S., Ramírez’s resume boasts 145 victories and 11 National titles. His trophy case glistens with gold including: U.S. Olympic Team Trials Champion (2012), National Champion (2010-2011), Junior Olympic National Champion (2010-2011) and USA Boxing National Champion (2011.)

All-new editions of HBO’s all-access reality series 24/7 PACQUIAO/MARQUEZ 4 debut on Saturday, December 1 (9:30-10:00 p.m. ET/PT) – while the finale debuts Friday, December 7 (8:00-8:30 p.m. ET/PT), the night before the high-stakes welterweight showdown. All four episodes will have multiple replay dates on HBO, and the series will also be available on HBO On Demand and HBO GO®.

Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs), of the Philippines, and Márquez (54-6-1, 39 KOs), of México, who have won world titles in 12 weight divisions between them, will go mano a mano and toe-to-toe, for the fourth time, in a 12-round welterweight battle, Saturday, December 8, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.

Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, Zanfer Promotions, Márquez Boxing, Tecate, Wonderful Pistachios, Cinemax ‘Banshee,’ Smart Communications, Universal Pictures ‘Django Unchained’ and MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, remaining tickets to Pacquiao-Márquez 4 are priced at $1,200, $900, $600, $400, and $200. Ticket sales at $1,200, $900, $600 and $400 are limited to 10 per person and ticket sales at $200 are limited to two (2) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

The Pacquiao vs. Márquez 4 telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com and at www.facebook.com/hboboxing. Use the hashtag #PacMarquez to join the conversation on Twitter. For Pacquiao vs. Márquez updates, log on to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com.

One loss, perhaps a single punch, might be all that separates Manny Pacquiao from a full-time political career.

If – and it’s a very big if – he prevails for a fourth time against Juan Manuel Marquez on Dec. 8, however, the Filipino Congressman figures to fight two more times.

“Yes, I will continue to fight through next year,’’ Pacquiao said during a conference call a couple days before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Without any unforeseen changes in a schedule that has included one bout in spring and another in autumn, Pacquiao might be retired a year from now on a day when he can say thanks for no more questions about Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The Mayweather question was there, as it always is, during the international call. There’s not much more that Pacquiao can say. His quick response about his plans for 2013 with or without Mayweather, however, left little doubt. If victory continues to elude Marquez in a third rematch, chances at Mayweather-Pacquiao are down to two. The blueprint for boxing’s version of a fiscal cliff is there.

It looks as if Pacquiao, who already offered to take the lesser share of a 45-55 split, has two options if Mayweather finds another reason to say no. Amend that. Mayweather hasn’t said much of anything lately.

Miguel Cotto and Brandon Rios look to be the leading candidates for Pacquiao’s farewell year. Like Pacquiao, Cotto also has to win. He faces a problematic fight with Austin Trout, who could derail hopes for a rematch of his TKO loss to Pacquiao.

“Yes, there is a chance,’’ Pacquiao said of the rematch possibility with Cotto, whom he picks to beat Trout on Dec. 1 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. “I think Cotto will win the fight. Not sure if by decision or knockout. Better chance for knockout, but not sure.’’

Then, there’s Rios, whose energy and go-for-broke style in his victory over Mike Alvarado in the likely Fight of the Year moved him to the front of the line. It also would be an easy one to make. Bob Arum promotes both Rios and Pacquiao.

Another option might be there if Pacquiao-Marquez IV at Las Vegas MGM Grand ends in more controversy, which might be the best bet of all. Anybody ready for a fifth? Arum called it unlikely, yet did recall that Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta fought six times.

“I don’t know,’’ Pacquiao said. “It’s hard to imagine a fourth one.’’

But not as hard to imagine as Pacquiao-Mayweather.

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (November 9, 2012) – Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum and Todd duBoef announced the signing of Méxican-American amateur sensation JOSE RAMÍREZ to an exclusive long-term promotional agreement with Top Rank today. Ramírez, arguably the crown jewel of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team, will make his professional debut, in a four-round lightweight bout, on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao – Juan Manuel Márquez 4 welterweight event, Saturday, December 8, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Pacquiao-Márquez 4 will be produced and distributed Live on HBO Pay-Per-View®, beginning at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.

“I feel very blessed to have the team that I have around me and that Top Rank will make my team even stronger,” said Ramírez. “I feel I’m in great hands with Top Rank and they care about their fighters.”

“We are ecstatic to sign Jose Ramírez to a promotional contract,” said Arum, Top Rank’s founder and CEO. “We considered Jose to be the leading prospect among the fighters comprising the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team.”

“After structuring one of the most complex and detailed agreements, we are thrilled to include the premier 2012 U.S. Olympian to our Top Rank stable,” said duBoef, president of Top Rank. “We have followed Jose’s highly-decorated amateur career and look forward to paving and developing a path for his professional career.”

“I am excited about our relationship with Top Rank because they believe in Jose and they have faith that Jose will excel in the sport,” said Armando Mancinas, coach and co-manager of Ramírez. “Their history of developing fighters should prove beneficial for Team Ramírez.”

“After countless meetings, months of research and preparation it was decided that as Top Rank raised boxing’s superstars in the past that they are poised to do the same with the next generation of the sport’s elite,” said Rick Mirigian, Ramírez’s co-manager and deal agent. “The structure, stability, partnerships and experience To Rank has in place is second to none. They stepped up and showed they share the same belief in Ramírez as we do and historically they don’t just sign anyone as they deal in quality, not quantity. I look forward to working close with them to create the sport’s next superstar and usher in a new generation of boxing.”

Ramírez, 20, who began boxing when he was 8, and hails from Avenal, Calif., surpassed Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Shane Mosley to become USA Boxing’s all-time lightweight record holder. The No. 1-rated amateur lightweight in the U.S., Ramírez’s resume boasts 145 victories and 11 National titles. His trophy case glistens with gold including: U.S. Olympic Team Trials Champion (2012), National Champion (2010-2011), Junior Olympic National Champion (2010-2011) and USA Boxing National Champion (2011.)

“Jose’s fan-friendly style of fighting – always on the attack and throwing lots of punches – is a perfect fit for Top Rank,” said Hall of Fame matchmaker Bruce Trampler. “We have very high expectations for him.”

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com former world champion Yuriorkis Gamboa will take on Miguel Beltran Jr. for a vacant Jr. Lightweight title.

Other bouts to be shown on the HBO PPV undercard will be IBF Lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez taking on Mercito Gesta as well as Javier Fortuna battling Snooki Promoted Patrick Hyland for a vacant Featherweight bout

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (October 1, 2012) – Congressman MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO and JUAN MANUEL MÁRQUEZ, two of boxing’s top pound for pound fighters, are proving to be two of boxing’s top pound for pound box office attractions too!

Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum announced today that over 13,000 tickets were sold during the opening weekend making Act 4 of their fistoric rivalry the biggest seller of their amazing series.

“We are ecstatic with the response,” said Arum, who noted that less than 3,000 tickets remain.

Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs), of the Philippines, and Márquez (54-6-1 (39 KOs), of México, who have won world titles in 12 weight divisions between them, will go mano a mano and toe-to-toe in a 12-round welterweight battle, Saturday, December 8, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev

Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, Zanfer Promotions, Márquez Boxing, Tecate and MGM Grand Hotel & Casino tickets to Pacquiao-Márquez 4 are priced at $1,200, $900, $600, $400, and $200. Ticket sales at $1,200, $900, $600 and $400 are limited to 10 per person and ticket sales at $200 are limited to two (2) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

The Pacquiao vs. Márquez 4 telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com and at www.facebook.com/hboboxing. Use the hashtag #PacMarquez to join the conversation on Twitter. For Pacquiao vs. Márquez updates, log on to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com.

Talk about Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. is back like a bad hangover. Everybody seems to have an interpretation, if not a prediction, in the wake of a settlement to Pacquiao’s defamation suit and his offer to give Mayweather the lion’s share in a 55-45 split.

It’s as if Pacquiao’s rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth meeting on Dec. 8 doesn’t matter. Maybe, it doesn’t, which is good reason for Marquez to worry about Robbery IV. The public and media fixation on Pacquiao-Mayweather won’t go away and perhaps won’t let anything stand in its way

That said, there’s been a shift in public sentiment and in Pacquiao himself. Combine the two, and only Marquez matters – or should – in any talk about Pacquiao-Mayweather. If Pacquiao loses, the Filipino Congressman becomes a full time politician. He has talked about leaving the ring. Marquez could hasten that departure.

Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach is concerned on a couple of levels.

First, there’s sympathy for Marquez and his argument that he was robbed in the narrow decisions, split and majority, that went against him in the first and second rematches. Scorecards can be like ballots. They’re subjective.

“I think we go into the fight three to four rounds down already,’’ Roach said about the Marquez bout when it was still being negotiated a couple of days before he worked Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.’s loss to Sergio Martinez on Sept. 15 at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center.

That means Pacquaio has to win by knockout. That would be a first. Marquez, who has six losses, has never been stopped. Given the narrow 36 rounds that already have transpired and Pacquiao’s record of no stoppages in five fights since a 2009 TKO of Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao by KO is a very tall order.

Roach says the task in camp at the Wild Card Gym will be to rediscover Pacquiao’s old aggression, which has withered for reasons that aren’t clear.

Compassion, perhaps the born-again expression of Pacquiao’s return to a Catholic lifestyle, has lessened the ferocity for which there was no refuge for so many of his fallen foes, Roach says. It was evident in 2010 when Pacquiao almost begged referee Laurence Cole to stop what he wouldn’t in a brutal decision over Antonio Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex.

Then again, it wasn’t enough in 2004 when Pacquiao, then at his ferocious best, knocked down Marquez three times in the first round, but never out during the next 11 in a bout that ended in a draw.

Roach says Pacquiao’s physical skills are as sharp as ever, although there seemed to be a missing gear in the hand speed throughout his controversial loss by decision to Timothy Bradley on June 9. From Erik Morales to Oscar De La Hoya, Pacquiao threw punches at a rate that overwhelmed. Against Bradley, that rate proved pedestrian.

But Roach is convinced that those hands will move at a ruthless rate if Pacquiao’s heart still has the streak of larceny needed in a brutal business.

Will it?

“I don’t know,’’ Roach said. “That’s the challenge.’’

The only one.