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Word is out that Juan Manuel Marquez will not, in fact, be gloving up at Cowboys Stadium in July, and it looks as though he'll be playing the waiting game, holding out for Manny Pacquiao and a fourth tangle between the two tighterthanthis rivals.

Bob Arum, who promotes Pacquiao, is aiming for a November clash between his fighter and Marquez, whose welterweight title bout in November resulted in a Pacquiao majority decision -- and yet another disputed outcome in their rivalry. I asked Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, to weigh in on the possibility of another Manny-Marquez tussle.

"It's not my favorite fight," the trainer said. "We fought three times, Manny beat him two out of three times. I don't see the point in it. They know each other so well. If we can't get [Floyd] Mayweather, I don't see why we fight Marquez again."

Beyond Mayweather, Roach cited his desire to see Pacquiao face the winner of the scheduled Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto rematch, but our chat took place before Berto tested positive for nandrolone, scuttling the fight.

Any better ideas, Freddie?

"Brandon Rios makes a lot of noise," Roach said.

LAS VEGAS -- Five things we learned from Saturday's Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Miguel Cotto card at the MGM Grand:

1. There's good, there's very good, and there's great

With every fight, Mayweather is moving up the all-time list. For years, one knock on his record was that, as good as he frequently looked, we didn't know how he would react when he was rocked or when he was in a real dogfight. We know now. When Shane Mosley hurt him badly in the second round of their fight two years ago, Mayweather turned it around and dominated every minute of every subsequent round. When Cotto dragged him into the trenches Saturday night, Mayweather engaged him, firing off the ropes; and when it looked like the effectiveness of that technique was waning after Cotto's blistering eighth round, Floyd changed strategies completely and sailed away with the final third of the bout.

There are plenty of reasons that those fans who don't like Mayweather will find to support their position. But his skills and ability shouldn't be among them. We are watching a genuinely great boxer in his pomp. Whatever our feelings of him as a person, we should allow ourselves to enjoy and marvel at his talent.

2. Seriously, enough's enough. It's time

For all the talk of "that" fight, for all the yapping from both sides, the prospect of Floyd Mayweather fighting Manny Pacquiao has, in the buildup to Saturday's contest, rarely if ever seemed more remote. But now, more than ever, it has to happen. Cotto was the best of the rest and he has been summarily dispatched. Outside of, say, Sergio Martinez or perhaps, in the case of Pacquiao, a fourth meeting with Juan Manuel Marquez, there's nobody left. Assuming Pacquiao makes it past Timothy Bradley Jr. on June 9, Mayweather-Pacquiao has to be next. Even as he poured cold water on the prospect of the fight ever happening, Mayweather admitted that "there's really nobody else out there for me."

3. Miguel Cotto was sold short

Even among those who gave Cotto credit for his skill and experience, who offered the caveat that against almost any other likely opponent, he would be favored, the Puerto Rican star was given next to no chance. One person who didn't sell him short, at least publicly, was Mayweather, and as he stood at the postfight news conference with his face uncharacteristically marked up, it was clear why. Cotto fought with enough intelligence and persistence that, through eight rounds, the outcome of a Mayweather fight was genuinely in doubt. He fought an almost perfect game plan; it's just that on this night, against this man, it wasn't enough.

4. Canelo Alvarez is a work in progress

There was much to be impressed with in Alvarez's victory over Mosley: He was unruffled, he was steady, he didn't panic when an accidental head-butt opened up a cut over his left eye. He planted his feet and threw compact punches with plenty of torque that thudded off Mosley's head with real impact. At the same time, there are still some areas for improvement, as is to be expected from such a young fighter. Alvarez could stand to be more active, to throw more punches, to start earlier. When he threw combinations, they were beautifully effective; he just didn't throw them enough. A case could be made that, after almost folding Mosley in half with body shots in the ninth, Alvarez should have taken it up a notch and tried to finish him. But for all the doubts and incomplete grades, this fight also highlighted the talent that is there, and the reception from the crowd underlined the stardom that assuredly awaits Alvarez as long as the wins keep coming.

5. The ride is over for Shane Mosley

Whatever doubts had been raised about Mosley's commitment to battle after the disappointing performances against Pacquiao and Mayweather, the 40-year-old erased them with his determined effort to stand and trade with the younger, stronger Alvarez. But while he was not afraid to pull the trigger, Mosley's punches lacked the speed and snap that were his trademark when he was at his peak. He looked at times almost as if he were punching through treacle. It is often said that the last thing a fighter loses is his punch, but Mosley had nothing in his arsenal with which to deter his younger foe. As Mosley admitted, when the young kids start beating you, maybe it's time to turn to promoting. Mosley has had a terrific career. It's time for that career to end on the relative high note of making a defiant last stand.

On Saturday, boxing fans will celebrate the Mexican festival of Cinco de Mayo by watching an American and a Puerto Rican do battle in the Nevada desert. More than anybody else, Oscar De La Hoya -- an American of Mexican descent -- popularized Cinco de Mayo (or the Saturday nearest to it) as a big fight weekend in Las Vegas, but since his retirement, the aforementioned American (Floyd Mayweather Jr.) and the Philippines' Manny Pacquiao have been the date's biggest pugilistic stars. Hey, imagine how crazy it would be if the two of them ever ... no, let's not go there. We have an actual fight to look forward to this weekend, a title bout between Mayweather and Miguel Cotto, and in the meantime, here's a reminder of some of the best May 5(ish) fights in Sin City's recent history.

5. Julio Cesar Chavez TD8 Frankie Randall, May 7, 1994, MGM Grand
Earlier in the year, Randall's points victory in the same venue brought Chavez his first official loss, in his 91st professional bout. The rematch was closely fought, but when Chavez said he was unable to continue after being cut by an accidental clash of heads, he was declared the winner on a technical decision (aided by a WBC rule that the accidental butter always be deducted a point; without that stipulation, the result would have been a split-decision draw.) The fight was the main event of a Don King card called "Revenge: the Rematches" that featured Terry Norris, Simon Brown, Julian Jackson, Gerald McClellan, Azumah Nelson and Jesse James Leija in perhaps the most stacked pay-per-view broadcast in boxing history.

4. Oscar De La Hoya TKO6 Ricardo Mayorga, May 6, 2006, MGM Grand
De La Hoya's final victory on the Las Vegas stage, and what a stirring one it was. Mayorga had genuinely infuriated the Golden Boy with his prefight taunts, and the vastly superior former Olympian punished him for it, dropping him once in the first and twice in the sixth. At his peak, De La Hoya brought an unmatched electricity to fight crowds, and this night was no exception. The atmosphere was off the hook, and as De La Hoya climbed the ropes to salute his fans in victory, it felt at the time like the perfect coda to a Hall of Fame career.

3. Manny Pacquiao D12 Juan Manuel Marquez, May 8, 2004, MGM Grand
The first installment of an intense and ongoing rivalry almost didn't make it past the first round of this encounter. Pacquiao, fresh off his shocking annihilation of Marco Antonio Barrera, flattened Barrera's countryman three times in that opening frame. Somehow, Marquez survived and fought his way back into the contest. Two fights and eight years later, Marquez remains Pacquiao's nemesis, and vice versa.

2. Manny Pacquiao KO2 Ricky Hatton, May 2, 2009, MGM Grand
This year was Pacquiao's annus mirabilis, in which he followed his 2008 demolition of De La Hoya with stoppage wins over Cotto and, previously, Hatton. The Englishman was down twice in the first round, unable to escape Pacquiao's right hooks, but was working his way back into the contest until PacMan uncorked a thunderbolt of a left hand at the end of the second to leave him spread-eagle on the canvas.

1. Diego Corrales TKO10 Jose Luis Castillo, May 7, 2005, Mandalay Bay
One of the greatest fights of all time -- heck, one could make a case that it was the greatest fight of all time -- will be forever remembered for its conclusive 10th round. Castillo put down Corrales hard and seconds later knocked him down again. Corrales spat out his mouthpiece and earned a point deduction for doing so, but it bought him precious time while the mouthpiece was cleaned, time that trainer Joe Goossen used to tell Corrales, "You'd better f---ing get inside of him now." And so Corrales did, summoning the strength to crack Castillo with a perfect right hand and then tearing into him on the ropes until referee Tony Weeks stopped the contest.

Corrales never won another fight. Two years later, to the very day, he was dead. But his memory, and the memory of his greatest moment in a boxing ring, will live forever.

Unbeaten junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley Jr. has an answer for everything.

Tell him he lacks power, and he'll tell you to ask the opponents he has been in the ring with whether they think he punches hard.

Bring up that he has a rep as a dirty fighter who leads with his head, he'll tell you it's merely the result of his style -- no different, he says, than that of others before him, like Evander Holyfield.

And if you think that casual fans -- and maybe a few educated ones, too -- don't know, or worse, couldn't care enough to watch his fights, well, he's got an answer for that, too.

"I think the fans and the general public simply haven't seen me fight," Bradley said.

So what does a guy with all the answers do to fix that?

For Bradley, it meant facing a breach-of-contract lawsuit from his former co-promoters in order to sign with Top Rank. It also meant enduring almost a year of inactivity and pubic mockery after turning down a career-high payday against Amir Khan in hopes of landing a fight with boxing cash cow Manny Pacquiao.

With Pacquiao's advisers having narrowed down the list of candidates for his next fight to a group that appeared either more deserving or more enticing at the box office, Bradley's chances appeared slim.

But just as the Palm Springs, Calif., native has overcome seemingly every obstacle placed in front of him professionally, Bradley (28-0, 12 KOs) is the lone name left standing. He'll move up in weight to challenge Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KOs) on June 9 in Las Vegas on pay-per-view.

"It was definitely an uphill battle taking all of the criticism from the fans and media in 2011," Bradley said. "Everyone was laughing at me and saying I'm scared of Amir Khan. But I felt that after winning three world championships, I still wasn't really known. Now I'm with the best promotional company in the world and I'm sitting pretty, ready to fight the best fighter in the world. So who is laughing now?"

With an upcoming starring role in HBO's documentary series "24/7" to build up the fight, Bradley will get his opportunity for crossover appeal to the casual fan. It's in line with something that he agrees the sport glaringly lacks: a wholesome American PPV star.

So what's the solution? Don't think he's out of answers yet.

"I'm that next big face in boxing, I truly believe it," Bradley said. "I definitely want to bring a good image and a good vibe back to boxing. My personality is very friendly and I'm very kind to the fans. Just the way that I carry myself, I try to be a good role model for the kids and boxing in general. I think the fans will also gravitate towards my willingness to fight the best out there."

Bradley is good-looking, intelligent and hard-working, with a skill set predicated on the overachieving, all-American values of discipline and perseverance. He is often compared to Holyfield, mostly for their shared penchant for head-butting. It's a shame that it usually ends there, when you consider that both fighters have consistently overcome perceived slights in size and power with heart and unparalleled conditioning.

Still think he's overrated or undeserving of such a marquee fight? Go ahead and criticize. It's the fuel that stokes Bradley's desire.

"When people talk bad about me, I love it," Bradley said. "I eat it up. Keep talking bad about me! You hear that everyone? I love it. You say whatever you want to say about me, because at the end of the day, it's motivation. The more confident you get, the more wins you get and the harder you work in the gym. Soon you find yourself winning fights that a lot of people count you out of."

But Bradley will have a tough time finding many who are willing to give him more than a puncher's chance against Pacquiao.

"Manny Pacquiao has had a lot of wars, and I think his outside life might catch up with him a little bit," Bradley said. "His mind is in a thousand different places at once, and he is going to have his hands full in the ring because they won't know what to expect from me. There is no way Manny Pacquiao works harder than me. There is no way.

"I don't believe I can be beaten. This is my moment. This is what I believe."

How Bradley handles the moment will dictate the level of crossover stardom that comes his way. But for the man who seemingly has all the answers, just one question remains come June 9: Can he answer the final bell with his hands held high?

Don't count him out just yet.

"Friday Night Fights" host Bernardo Osuna discusses Manny Pacquiao's high-risk low-reward fight with Timothy Bradley Jr., set for June 9 in Las Vegas, plus more top bouts in the months ahead.

We know that Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. won't be fighting each other in the first half of 2012. And we know who Mayweather will be fighting instead on May 5: Miguel Cotto.

So that leaves one part of the spring-season super-duper-star equation left to be revealed, and that's PacMan's June 9 opponent.

Initially, the list of options included four names: Cotto, Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley Jr. and Lamont Peterson. Then Mayweather's name was added. Then it was scratched out. Then Cotto crossed himself off.

That leaves three. All indications coming out of every corner of the boxing world suggest that it will be officially announced next week that Bradley will get the assignment.

Nothing against Bradley, an excellent fighter by any measure, but it's time to say what not enough people seem to be saying: This fight should have gone to Marquez. In every conceivable way, he's a better opponent for Pacquiao than Bradley. In fact, as he's proven repeatedly, he's a better opponent for Pacquiao than anyone not named Floyd Mayweather.

In terms of entertainment value, every Pacquiao-Marquez bout is a fight of the year candidate. Every Bradley bout is a technical draw candidate.

From a business perspective, Marquez is the fourth-most bankable name in boxing (behind Pacquiao, Mayweather and Cotto) and his third fight with Pacquiao last November generated an estimated 1.4 million pay-per-view buys. Bradley doesn't have a fan base, meaning a Pac-Bradley pay-per-view will draw however many buys the Filipino legend can draw with just his name and face on the poster.

With regard to who deserves the fight more, the majority of fans believe Marquez deserved the victory over Pacquiao last time out -- in a fight nearly everyone expected PacMan to win by knockout, by the way. Bradley is the top-rated junior welterweight in the world, but his lone fight in the past 12 months, against a used-up Joel Casamayor, hardly qualifies him for a shot at the people's champ.

Looking at what's best for the fans, for fairness and for the folks counting the receipts, it's Marquez over Bradley all day long. So why was Marquez never given serious consideration for a fourth fight with Pacquiao in June? Why was Cotto the frontrunner initially, and why is it Bradley now?

The only explanation that makes sense is that Marquez fought a little too well for his good in November. Say what you will about Bob Arum and his team at Top Rank, but there are no dummies working in that Las Vegas office. Goal No. 1 is to not let Pacquiao lose (except maybe against Mayweather, when Manny is a fight or two away from retirement). And with Marquez, the third fight illustrated that at any weight and on any date, JMM gives Pacquiao fits.

Again, there's nothing wrong with a Pacquiao-Bradley fight. The man known as "Desert Storm" is a top-10 pound-for-pounder and a credible foe.

But he's no Marquez. Not in terms of name value, not in terms of in-ring excitement and not in terms of what's best for the sport.

I guess the Mexican master was never getting a fourth fight against Pacquiao, no matter what transpired last November.

If Marquez had gotten bowled over, as many predicted, it would have provided a conclusive end to their trilogy.

Instead, we got an ending inconclusive enough to ensure that another chapter won't be written.

Within the bowels of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, amid the furor regarding the unpopular decision to award Saturday's main event to Manny Pacquiao, fans and press alike have had a swath of issues to debate.

Let's get one thing out of the way: Pacquiao lost on Saturday. Yes, he lost. Although the record books will forever show a "W" on the ledger and his bank account is accordingly larger, in every other sense, this weekend was a humbling experience for boxing's one true transcendent star.

Pacquiao maintained that he took a third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez to definitively settle the issue of who won their previous two bouts, which had been ruled a draw and a split decision in Pacquiao's favor. On both occasions, large enough sections of the gladiatorial gallery had crowned Marquez the winner, making it an eternal niggling asterisk on the Filipino's Hall of Fame CV.

So how vehemently vexing it must have been for Pacquiao to be interviewed amid an ocean of jeering after the judges awarded him yet another victory against his most capable foe.

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, along with the majority of the press corps, claimed we would see a knockout. We didn't. Marquez's age and bloated size would be vanquished by the younger, lithe and mercurial Pacquiao, many asserted. Not the case.

But the real cherry on this not-so-trifling matter is that Pacquiao's camp now seems to be avoiding a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., something the boxing world has lusted after for years. The two have been verbal sparring partners of late and have fought pitched battles in the courts, but it seems perhaps the war -- in the media at least -- may have been won by Mayweather.

Marquez showed us a glimpse of the solution to the Pacquiao algorithm, one that will likely be solved if Mayweather and Pacquiao ever square off in the ring. And although Pacquiao walked away on Saturday with at least $22 million, 28 stitches and the official win, some losses perhaps are harder to quantify.

Pacquiao Khan't beat Marquez

When your own sparring partner and training stablemate thinks you lost, it's probably a bad sign. With the rigmarole of Saturday's boxing circus unwinding, light welterweight supremo Amir Khan chose to pipe up.

"He's got away with it against Marquez," Khan told The Daily Mail. "Even I had him losing by two rounds. He's my friend and I'm happy for him that he won. But for his sake, we have to be honest. He would not beat Floyd Mayweather on this performance."

Rumors abound that the longtime sparring partners are now banned from sparring in case Khan becomes an option for Pacquiao further down the line. For Khan, he sees good reason for these drastic measures.

"Well, let me just say that in our sparring lately, he's not the one getting the better of it."

Trout has no doubts

For those wondering who might face the winner of the Dec. 3 battle between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito, look no further than Austin Trout.

Who? Yes, that's right. For the less hard core among you, Trout's waist is adorned with a rather meaningless WBA junior middleweight belt. But more meaningful is the fact that Trout is fast, hard-punching and willing to travel anywhere to seek out fights -- something he has done with little fanfare and that has ensured he remains one of boxing's best-kept secrets.

After Trout made his successful network debut last week, his manager, Greg Cohen, announced he expects his fighter to face the best in the division.

"If [Cotto or Margarito] choose not to fight us and vacate the belt, then we'll be the only ones with a rightful claim to be WBA champion," Cohen said. "In that case, we'll make our mandatory against [Anthony] Mundine in a fight that would have not only all the new fans Austin made over the weekend, but the entire continent of Australia also buzzing the day it was made."

Manfredo mans up
In a sport that oozes bravado, honesty and realism can sometimes be the most refreshing of tonics. Peter Manfredo Jr., a fighter who has always tried to maximize his self-confessed limited gifts, will take on Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Saturday in a middleweight bout at the Reliant Arena in Houston.

Having often faced the best, including Joe Calzaghe, and having come up short, Manfredo knows that his shot against Chavez is his last shot at glory and looks at the opportunity in the most endearing of ways.

"I've been very satisfied with my boxing career," Manfredo said. "I was an unknown kid from Providence, R.I. I was not a great amateur boxer. If I lose, I hang it up and concentrate on being a good father to my kids."

Refreshing indeed.

Tweet of the week

@JRoche3MR: "Bradley wins the second, if we're lucky Casamayor will headbutt himself unconscious soon and end this"

Fight Week Friday is, for hacks like yours truly, often a surprisingly quiet part of the week. Most of what can be written has been written, and aside from the weigh-in, there's little to do except pick up last-minute news and information and await the start of Saturday's hostilities. The mood in the media room is one of activity but, also, relatively speaking, relaxation. On this Friday afternoon, promoter Bob Arum is working the room, chatting informally with reporters. Somehow the subject of Twitter arises and Arum, chuckling, reveals that his brief relationship with that particular arm of social media has now ended.

"I dictated a few things to Lee [Samuels, Top Rank's ace PR man] and then left it," he said. "I couldn't think of anything to say. I realized it probably isn't a good thing for someone like me. I could get myself in trouble."

And then, above the background buzz inside the room, the sound of singing and cheering erupts from outside as Freddie Roach, Manny Pacquiao's trainer, walks past the assembled masses en route to a round of radio interviews. I don't know if anyone is certain when the first person stood in line for this afternoon's weigh-in, but there was already a small crowd by 9 a.m. A few hours later, the line stretched from the arena doors, past the media room and along the Studio Walk shops and restaurants. The crowd chants and cheers, but it is good natured and well behaved, and when the doors open to the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the thousands in attendance file happily and swiftly inside.

Wandering around, I bump into Emily Pandelakis, the publicist for up-and-coming junior welterweight Jose Benavidez Jr., who is taking in the action with Jose's brother and his father, Jose Sr. The younger Benavidez, who is fighting Samuel Santana on the non-televised portion of Saturday's card, has been sparring with Amir Khan at the Wild Card Gym under the tutelage of Roach, who has been singing the praises of the youngster (who is now 19) for a couple of years now.

"Honestly, we feel blessed," said Jose Sr. "This is the fourth time we've been on a Manny Pacquiao undercard."

Jose Jr. is already inside the arena, filing paperwork before the weigh-in. Then, after he strips off, steps on the scales and makes weight, there will be little left for him to do either, except eat, rehydrate, rest and, like the rest of us, wait for fight night to be upon us.

Timothy Bradley Jr. is angry.

Don't take my word for it. He says so himself.

"I've been angry for the last eight or nine months," he told reporters at the MGM Grand on Thursday. "I've been angry. I've got a chip on my damn shoulder, I really do."

What is he angry about? Well, how much time have you got?

For one thing, he is angry about what he continues to feel was the ineffective way he was promoted in his career prior to joining Top Rank, for whom he will fight his first fight, against Cuban veteran Joel Casamayor, in the chief support bout for Manny Pacquaio's clash with archrival Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday.

"I felt like I was standing still. I've been standing still for a while. I've only fought twice in the last two years, guys. And I don't understand why," Bradley said. "I came off one of the biggest fights in my career [January's junior welterweight unification victory over Devon Alexander], and I didn't really move anywhere. Fighting the Devon fight didn't do nothing for my career, man. Nothing. Didn't do anything for me. I don't know, man. This boxing game can be tricky, it can use and abuse you. Only the strong survive in this game, and I've learned that now."

Signing with Top Rank, Bradley believes, will give him the push over the top so that he receives the acclaim and fame he clearly thinks he deserves. "I've got a true, real-life promoter now that's going to push me and push me and push me to be superstar in this game," he said. "I'm a three-time world champion. I shouldn't be able to walk down these dang corridors right here. People should know who I am. People should know exactly who I am. I'm a three-time world champion."

But that isn't all. If not angry exactly, Bradley is certainly unhappy about the fact that, as he puts it, "I'm still fighting for respect."

"All the criticism, everything everybody said about me, I want to prove everybody wrong," he said. "People saying I don't deserve a shot at Manny, don't deserve a shot at this, or I'm going to get knocked out: Prove it to me. I don't fear any man. I don't. I don't fear Joel Casamayor. Do I feel he's a threat? Absolutely not. I'm going to destroy Casamayaor on Saturday. Period. Hands down. There's nothing he can do to beat me."

Bradley does, however, acknowledge that he lost a fair deal of the respect he had built up when he turned down an offer to fight rival titlist Amir Khan earlier this year. But as he insists, "I'm going to win it all back. I probably have lost respect from fans, yeah. Even after the Devon fight, people lost respect for me. But it's OK, it's alright."

That path begins Saturday, with a bout he recognizes he needs to win impressively to grab people's attention and perhaps put himself in line for a bout with the man who headlines Saturday's pay-per-view show:

"It's been a while," Bradley said. "This is serious business. I'm ready to go, man. Casamayor, I respect him. I respect him as a fighter, but his time is over. It's Timothy Bradley time. It's 'Desert Storm' time. I'm in the best shape I could possibly be in, man. There's nothing that I fear. There's no one that I fear. I don't fear anybody. Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather -- I'm ready for anybody. Any time. Right now, man. I'm ready. And I'm going to have a great performance Saturday night. I feel it. He can't stop me.

"I'm stronger than ever. Everything that I went through these last nine months has made me strong. My character is stronger than ever. I've grown. I've grown a heckuva lot, man. I'm a little emotional right now because I want it. You know what I'm saying? I want it."

Juan Manuel Marquez's trainer, Nacho Beristain, agrees that Manny Pacquiao is much-improved technically since he and Marquez first fought. But, he argues, those improvements will be to his fighter's advantage.

"Without a doubt, his trainer's done a great job with him," Beristain told reporters through an interpreter at the MGM Grand on Thursday. "He's taught him a lot. He's become a more complete fighter, but that helps us. Before, he was a little wild, throwing different punches from different angles. Now he's a more efficient fighter, but I think that helps us. Not being so wild, instead of not knowing where it's coming from, we know exactly what he wants to do."

The first two meetings between Marquez and Pacquiao were closely fought, back-and-forth crowd pleasers, and Beristain says he is confident the third leg of the trilogy will be no different.

"I believe that because Manny Pacquiao is such a spectacular fighter, he's always willing to exchange, he's always willing to fight and he found a guy who's willing to fight with him, in his own style, at his own pace -- I think that's why they make such great fights,” Beristain said. "One guy is trying to make his own style work, and the other guy is trying to make it not work, to do his own thing. Their style just matches, and I believe the third fight is going to be the best one."

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, expressed surprise Wednesday that Marquez had elected to bulk up, adding muscle to make the fight's 144-pound weight limit, rather than coming in light and using the speed and counterpunching that had served him well in the first two contests. Beristain said the plan had always been to make Marquez stronger, although he acknowledged he'd had concerns over what that muscle would do to his fighter's speed -- concerns, Beristain insists, that have been assuaged.

"We wanted him to be strong enough to be more explosive with his punches," he said. "I was very concerned in the beginning, I could see he was slowing down. But over the last 15 days he's picked it up. We've done something different and I'm much happier now with his speed. I was expecting to get a slower fighter. I knew he was going to get bigger. But every time he went into the gym, he did what I wanted him to do. I knew he was bigger, I knew he was stronger, but the speed now is coming up. I was a little concerned in the beginning, but he's coming along and I think he's going to be fine for the fight."

Talk of the new Marquez physique inevitably leads to questions about the man who helped provide it, the Mexican's strength and conditioning coach, Angel Hernandez -- who, when known as Angel Heredia, provided steroids to track stars such as Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery. But Beristain insists he isn't at all concerned that there may be anything nefarious behind his fighter's muscle gain:

"I'm grateful for what they did with my fighter. I've got a real good fighter, a real strong fighter, a guy with a lot of energy. I know that Juan would never take anything illegally. He would never do anything like that. He's always been a clean fighter, and this guy can't do anything wrong. If he does anything wrong, all the eyes of the world will be on him. I know if [Hernandez] came to Juan with something, Juan would never take it. I'm not worried about that."

A lot of the discussion around the media room this week has been focused on the physical changes in Juan Manuel Marquez, the fact that he has put on muscle to make the 144-pound limit for Saturday's fight with Manny Pacquiao.

Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, is surprised that Marquez and his camp took that route.

"I'm very surprised, yes," he said on Wednesday. "I thought he'd come in at 135 and use his speed and counterpunching ability, that that would be the best way to fight Manny. But they seem to have gone in a different direction."

Marquez won the majority of the rounds in their first two bouts, with Pacquiao making up the difference courtesy of a total of four knockdowns. Roach is confident that the Mexican's added bulk will reduce his speed and thus the likelihood of his winning as many rounds; besides, Roach adds, Pacquiao is a much-changed fighter. Three years ago might as well be eons past.

"[Marquez] won those rounds by leading with his right hand, and Manny moving in one direction and walking into it," Roach said. "Manny can move laterally now, and at that time he would move in only one direction. He was a limited guy, he only had one big left hand and no right hook, and now he has two hands and he's much more mobile and I think he's a whole different fighter now."

Roach does expect Marquez to hit the canvas again, though. But the trainer doubts he will do so more than once:

"I don't think he's going to be able to get up from this Manny Pacquiao punch."

The final fight of a trilogy inevitably invites contemplation of the previous two bouts, and this Saturday's third clash between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez is no exception. But Marquez trainer Nacho Beristain told reporters this week that, often, the fighters who meet for the third time bear little resemblance to those who fought the first time: Lessons have been learned, experience has been gained and improvements have been made.

Pacquiao, for one, is certain that if Marquez is expecting to face the same man he fought in 2004 and 2008, he's in for a surprise.

"I don’t think that [studying] the last two fights will help for this fight, because it's a big difference. I've changed a lot, my style. I think I'm more improved right now, compared to three years ago, four years ago," he said this week. "I think I'm more experienced, especially my strategy and techniques, and more improved in my right hand, and also movement side to side, and timing. I've learned how to be a counterpuncher as well as an aggressive fighter."

That said, Pacquiao acknowledges that "the last two fights helped me a lot. I learned a lot, especially [how to fight] a counterpuncher."

Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, believes the fact that Marquez is bulking up for this fight is a sign that the Mexican intends to stand and fight; Pacquiao says he shares that belief but, perhaps reminded of the contrast between Shane Mosley's prefight bravado and his actual in-ring performance last May, he cautioned that the proof would only come once the bell has rung.

"It's easy to say he'll rumble or go to-to-toe," he said, smiling. "I've heard that before with my opponents, but when they get in the ring it's not true. But we will see on Saturday whether it's true or not."

Manny Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, is confident that his fighter's third encounter with Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand on Saturday will be the most entertaining yet. The reason, he says, is that Marquez, who has lately been campaigning as a lightweight, has apparently been adding muscle to make the 144-pound limit for this fight.

"Marquez has become a more fan-friendly fighter; he isn't strictly a counterpuncher anymore," Roach told reporters at the MGM Grand on Tuesday. "Let's face it, when you put muscle on, you put muscle on for one reason, and that's to exchange. I like that. If he wants to exchange with us, I think that's great. He's getting ready for a big fight. He used to be a pinpoint counterpuncher, and I think the muscles are going to hurt his counterpunching but help in the strength area, and so I think he's going to fight us. This will be the best of the three fights with the way both these guys are getting ready, in my mind.

"He's going to come and use his power the best he can. I think he's going to start quick and just go for it, and that's why I'm going to have Manny warmed up really well and ready. [This fight is] going to be good for boxing because both guys are going to try their best and really, really go at it. This is a much more exciting fight than [Floyd] Mayweather."

That said, he acknowledges that a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather is something for which fans are clamoring and is, candidly, after the Marquez bout, the only one that really interests him. But that doesn't mean Roach is equally enthusiastic about the potential opponent himself, or optimistic the matchup will ever take place.

"I don't see any other real challenges," he said. "I think that fight needs to happen, because it's the only challenge out there. I think about that fight, and it's a great challenge and all that, and everywhere I travel in the world, people are excited about that fight and ask me to make it happen. But I'm getting kind of tired of Floyd, to be honest with you. Shut up and fight or not. He wants to make the rules, he wants to dictate everything. We'll fight him any day of the week, under Nevada state regulations. Who the f--- is he to try and make the rules?

"[If he doesn't fight Pacquiao] there'll be a question mark after his undefeated record. He only fights guys he can beat, little guys and all that stuff. Now he's calling us 'the little fella.' I think he's referring to Manny, but I really don't know. He sends Leonard Ellerbe, his gopher, to make a speech. Who the hell's Leonard Ellerbe? Why won't Floyd say it himself? I'm just kind of tired of it. If that fight doesn't happen, I'm not going to cry."

Manny Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, told reporters on Monday that his fighter's boxing career had a firm end date: 2013, assuming Pacquiao runs for, and wins, election as governor of Sarangani Province in the Philippines. Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, isn't quite so ready to assume that the countdown clock is ticking.

"He asked me: 'When I start slowing down, will you tell me?'" Roach told reporters at the MGM Grand on Tuesday. "And I said, 'Yeah, but you're not even close yet.' I haven't seen any decline in Manny Pacquiao, so he could fight for years more if he wants to. It's just his motivation. I told him, the first day he walks through the Wild Card doors and he's lazy, I'll tell him. We've always decided that'll be the day he quits.

"Manny Pacquiao's going to quit when Manny Pacquiao's going to quit and he feels like it, and putting a number on it -- it's an idea, but will it happen? Boxing's very, very addictive. It's hard to give up, as we all know, and Manny Pacquiao, he might fight 10 more fights."

After Manny Pacquiao scored a disputed split-decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez in their second fight in March 2008, the cries were strong -- not just from the Marquez camp but from much of boxing fandom -- for a third fight to finally settle the score.

But Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, had other ideas. He was determined to match Pacquiao with lightweight beltholder David Diaz. It seemed a gratuitously defiant act: Yes, Diaz held a lightweight title, affording Pacquiao the opportunity to add a world title in a fifth weight class. But the Pacquiao-Marquez rematch sold 400,000 pay-per-views in the United States, a record for the lower weight classes, and there seemed no way a matchup with the solid but limited and little-known Diaz could possibly do better than that.

Arum, however, says he was mapping out a longer-term plan.

"I was beginning to feel what I had in Manny Pacquiao, basically because of the adoration from the Filipinos, whether in this country or elsewhere," Arum told reporters at the MGM Grand, where Pacquiao will finally meet Marquez for a third time this Saturday. "So I knew I had someone, like [Cassius] Clay, who, if I could only bring him to the attention of the general public, could be someone quite special."

Which, perhaps counterintuitively, is where Diaz came in.

"I realized the only way he could be special is if he fought higher-weight fights, if he fought guys like [Oscar] De La Hoya, like [Miguel] Cotto, like [Antonio] Margarito and not if he just limited himself to the fighters at 126 and 130 [pounds]," Arum said. "We luckily promoted David Diaz, who was a very good fighter, but nothing exceptional. And he lucked into a WBC lightweight title, and then he defended it against Erik Morales and barely eked out a win, and so I figured that that was the move. Even though it would [sell], which it did, [to] less homes than a third fight -- and it didn't do particularly well -- it wouldn't make it crazy when I could pull off the impossible and put him in with De La Hoya. As it was, after he beat Diaz, the Philippine Congress passed a resolution saying he shouldn't leave the country because he was going to get killed [by the much larger De La Hoya]. Can you imagine if he hadn't fought Diaz?"

Even so, Arum had second thoughts about the notion of putting in his young phenom with his former phenom, who had been fighting at junior middleweight and even middleweight -- more than 20 pounds higher than the weight at which Pacquiao was now campaigning -- since 2001.

"When the De La Hoya fight became possible, I had a big meeting -- I'll never forget it -- with Pacquiao in the suite at the Mandalay [Bay]," said Arum. "And I said: 'Manny, do you know what you're doing here? De La Hoya's so much bigger, so much stronger, you're liable to get hurt. There's a lot easier guys to fight. I'm telling you all of this because I want you to realize that maybe you shouldn't fight him.' And he got angry, and he said, 'I want to fight De La Hoya. I know I can beat him.' He looked at me with those steely eyes, and he really was sincere. It wasn't a question of the money or anything else. That's when I knew we had a helluva shot, and Freddie [Roach], who had trained Oscar, told us that Manny was going to beat Oscar. So we knew it internally, although Bruce [Trampler, Top Rank's Hall of Fame matchmaker], who knows fights, was leaning toward De La Hoya."

Of course, Pacquiao demolished De La Hoya in December 2008, sending the Golden Boy into retirement, and went on to defeat Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto before taking on larger-yet foes such as Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito. Arum admits that, in the aftermath of the Margarito fight, he realized matching the former flyweight with such relatively hefty opponents had to end.

"After he fought Margarito, when he told me how much he was hurting from those body shots -- to the public, it looked like a one-sided fight, but really, Margarito banged him around to the body, and the guy hurt him. He was in pain for a month. I thought, 'Am I crazy? I can't keep him fighting bigger guys all the time.' So he's in with Marquez now, and maybe down the road he'll fight Timothy Bradley, guys he matches up better with physically."

For that reason, Arum is dismissive of the notion of a matchup with middleweight champ Sergio Martinez, even if Martinez commits to weigh in at 150 and weigh no more than 164 on fight night. If Martinez and promoter Lou DiBella really want to make that fight, Arum says, he has an idea that is simultaneously novel and old school:

"Now, what I would say is, if you really want to fight Manny Pacquiao, you say you want to fight him at 150, let's go to a commission -- not necessarily this [Nevada] commission; maybe New York, maybe Texas -- and say, 'Both fighters want to do the fight and they want to go back to the old days and they want to do the weigh-in at noon on the day of the fight.' Once they do that, we can start talking."

As for the never-ending saga of the prospect of a bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr., Arum, naturally, puts the blame for the fight not being made solely on the man from Michigan.

"It's not a question of him making it difficult," Arum said of Mayweather. "He's making it impossible, because he's not making it. I thought to myself: 'OK, maybe he's got a point, even though I think it's baloney on this doping/drug test thing.' So Manny and I discussed it, and I said, 'Manny, even though they can, they're not going to go into the dressing room on the night of the fight to take blood, and if they do, let 'em take it from your ass, not your arm. So he said, 'OK, OK, no conditions.' None. And then [Mayweather]'s on [TV] this weekend, saying, 'I'll fight him, take the test.' What is he saying? And why doesn't the press take him up on it? How many times are we supposed to say that that is not an issue?"

Whether that fight does or does not happen, time for potential opponents is running out. Pacquiao's boxing career, says Arum, has a finite time remaining and a clear end date.

"Let me give you the political situation. He's now a Congressman from Sarangani. His term is up in 2013, when he will run for governor of Sarangani Province, and probably win," Arum said. "That's the end of boxing, because as a [Filipino] congressman -- like [U.S.] congressmen -- you don't work very hard. It's the truth! Some of them do, but how many days are they in session? Two days a week?

"But as a governor, it's different. As a governor, you've got to run the whole province; you're responsible for the water, the electricity, everything. So that's what he's going to concentrate on, and then in 2016, he's going to run for the Senate, which is a six-year term, and then in 2022 when he'll be over 40 years of age, that's the first time he's eligible to run for president. So that's a big, tough, political career to build up to, and he won't have time -- nor should he have time -- to spare coming over to the Wild Card, doing press conferences and so on."