By Miguel Rivera
Former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7, 40 KOs), 44 years old, was one of several high profile fighters to officially announce their retirement from the sport in 2017.
Earlier this month, it was the five year anniversary of Marquez's sensational knockout of Manny Pacquiao in their fourth meeting.
In Mexico that victory is regarded as one of the biggest wins by one of their own.
Marquez and Pacquiao first met in 2004 at featherweight. Marquez recovered from three knockdowns in the first round to rally down the stretch. The bout would end in a controversial twelve round draw.
The 2008 rematch, at super featherweight, saw Pacquiao win a controversial twelve round split decision. And the third meeting, in 2011, saw Pacquiao win a twelve round majority decision in another fight that was deemed controversial by a number of experts.
The fourth bout, in 2012, saw both fighters hit the floor, and Marquez closed the show in the sixth round with one of the most memorable one-punch knockouts - with Pacquiao going down face-first and completely out in the closing seconds.
After the heavy hype of the fourth bout, there was an enormous amount of interest to do a fifth fight.
Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, presented numerous multi-million dollar offers - that Marquez rejected.
It wasn't about the money for Marquez, as he accepted fights with Timothy Bradley and Mike Alvarado for far less than he would have made for a fifth Pacquiao bout.
Marquez reveals that investors in the Philippines offered him $100 million to travel over to their country to face Pacquiao in a fifth bout .
Despite the high amount of money at his feet, Marquez felt it would have been wrong to place himself in a position where he could potentially tarnish the memory of his big win.
"There was an offer for a fifth fight against Pacquiao in the Philippines for $100 million dollars, and I refused in order to keep my honor and the glory of the fourth fight from 2012," said Marquez in an interview with ESPN Deportes.
Marquez explained further that a $100 million would not be enough to repair the damage if he took a fifth fight and was robbed or seriously hurt in Pacquiao's backyard.
"It's a lot of money - but honor, pride and what we did is more important than doing a fifth fight. Let's pretend that the fifth fight would happen. How about if I get robbed in the fight, we do not know what can happen, he's capable of hitting me with the right shot and hurting me badly. So I would place myself at risk. The glory and what we did in 2012 is worth more than that amount they were offering," Marquez said.
2023-10-20 05:31:25
