Juan Manuel Marquez Wants One Fight Before Pacquiao Trilogy

Having not fought since a November win over Michael Katsidis, Juan Manuel Marquez says that he would like an interim fight before a potential trilogy bout with Manny Pacquiao this fall. BoxingScene.com's Miguel Rivera says that Marquez is targeting a July or August date, with a Pacquiao fight coming in October or, more likely, November.

Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KO) has been officially offered a fight with Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KO), with a reported Marquez purse of $5 million plus pay-per-view revenue incentives. The Mexican star has been chasing a third fight with Pacquiao ever since the two met for a second time in 2008, which was four years after their first meeting. The first fight was at 126 pounds, while the second came at 130. The third fight would almost surely be at either a welterweight limit, or a catchweight between junior welterweight and welterweight. Marquez is currently the world lightweight champion, while Pacquiao holds a welterweight trinket and has gone as high as a 150-pound pound limit against Antonio Margarito.

Standing in the way of course is Shane Mosley, who faces Pacquiao this Saturday night on Showtime pay-per-view. If Mosley does defeat Pacquiao, Top Rank has said that there is a rematch clause in the contract. I suppose that you could speculate that Pacquiao would fight Marquez later this year anyway, but I have my doubts Top Rank would be keen about letting the 39-year-old Mosley potentially hurt a rematch's potential sales by fighting again before rematching Pacquiao, and Mosley would probably seek out a fight if Pacquiao did fight Marquez later this year following a loss to Mosley.

In other words, if Mosley beats Pacquiao, I expect a Mosley-Pacquiao rematch would be a lock for November, and Marquez would be out of luck and have to wait until 2012 to potentially fight Manny again. Marquez fighting in the interim might be very tough, as Golden Boy Promotions has the rights to match any offers he gets until February 2012. But we'll see how this shakes out. It's possible that Top Rank could "overpay" for a Marquez fight in July or August to keep Golden Boy uninvolved.