Pacquiao-Marquez II likely on Mar. 15, says GBP exec

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said the sought-after rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez is now in the works and the dream fight is likely to happen on March 15 next year at a still undetermined venue.

“Both (Bob) Arum and I, we already met and we talked about this fight, in case Juan Manuel Marquez did win. We have the date reserved, which is March 15th, of next year,” said Schaefer during the post-fight press conference of Marquez-Rocky Juarez the other day at the Desert Diamond Casino in Tuczon, Arizona.

“I will be with Bob next week in New York for the Mosley-Cotto fight and I will have further discussions and negotiations with him,” added Schaefer in a report by fightnews.com.

“I hope that within the next couple of weeks, we can put that fight together.” 

GBP president Oscar de la Hoya, for his part, firmly believes that the Pacquiao-Marquez II is something boxing fans across the globe want to happen, even as he hurled a challenge at the Pacman.

“If you want to be called the best at 130 pounds, you have to go through Marquez,” De La Hoya said. “It’s a match-up that the whole world wants to watch.  It’s a match-up that has to happen.”

Marquez himself openly called on Pacquiao and dared the Filipino punching dynamo to prove his claim he’s a “Mexican killer”.

“I want a fight with Manny Pacquiao,” declared Marquez after soundly beating Juarez by lopsided unanimous decision to retain his WBC super featherweight title for the first time.

 “I know that Manny Pacquiao said ‘I am Mexican killer.’  He hasn’t proved it.  He hasn’t proved me,” added the Mexican “Dinamita”.

During their first encounter on May 8, 2004 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada,  Pacquiao knocked down Marquez three times in the first round, but the Mexican showed great recuperative powers to forge a controversial majority draw in their IBF/WBA featherweight unification bout.—EBV