Pacquiao with four pound weight advantage over Marquez

By ESB - 12/07/2012 - Comments

Pacquiao with four pound weight advantage over MarquezBy Steve Mabbott: Juan Manuel Marquez had looked huge during his training video on the HBO Pacquiao-Marquez 24/7 episodes, but during today’s weigh-in for Saturday’s Las Vegas based fight, Marquez weighed in at only 143 lbs, a whole four pounds lighter than the 147 pound Manny Pacquiao.

This is interesting because unless Marquez rehydrates to a much higher weight, we’re likely to see Pacquiao as the bigger guy tomorrow night. It sort of makes a lot of sense because Marquez walks around at 145 lbs in between fights, and he has to eat like crazy just to stay up in weight. He’s a light welterweight, and Pacquiao is now a natural welterweight.

The last time Pacquiao fought Marquez in November of last year, Pacquiao had a one pound advantage in weight at 143 to 142 for Marquez. In their 2008 fight, Marquez had a one pound weight advantage at 130 to 129 for Pacquiao. And in their first fight in 2004, both fighters came in at 125 lbs.

So what does this mean that Pacquiao is now four pounds heavier? You could spin this to suggest that Pacquiao will be slower than Marquez and that the extra weight will hurt him. However, Pacquiao weighed 144 lbs for his fight against Miguel Cotto in 2009, and he fought incredibly well in that fight. Pacquiao has been roughly around the mid-140s consistently since his fight with Cotto. However, Pacquiao only looked good in the Cotto fight.

In the rest of the bouts, Pacquiao fought at a slower pace, with less movement and less action. Of course, if you take away the Marquez fight, Pacquiao was matched pretty softly by putting him in with 40-year-old Shane Mosley, Tim Bradley, Antonio Margarito who was no longer at his best, and Joshua Clottey.

Marquez is right about at the same weight he was for his fight with Paquiao last November, and he really well in that fight and probably deserved to get the decision. If Marquez can fight like that on Saturday night he’s going to be awfully hard for Pacquiao to beat him aside from by another sickening questionable decision.