As criticism of Bob Arum’s decision to go with Shane Mosley instead of Juan Manuel Marquez for Manny Pacquiao’s next fight on May 7 lingers like a Holiday hangover, there’s a ballot that unwittingly supports Arum’s controversial move.
Marquez isn’t among the nominees for 2010 Fighter of the Year, the most prestigious prize among those that the Boxing Writers Association of America presents every year after a January vote. Pacquiao, Filipino Congressman and international celebrity, is there and should be. So, too, are Wladimir Klitschko, Sergio Martinez, Giovani Segura and Andre Ward.
Marquez’ absence is an omission that Arum can mock, seize and spin into a sales pitch for Mosley-Pacquiao, which has been battered from pillar-to-post by condemnations from everybody who has ripped the Top Rank boss for letting his feud with Golden Boy Promotions get in the way of a Marquez-Pacquiao rematch.
If the writers don’t include Marquez at the top of their ticket, why would the public buy one? All along, Arum has said that Marquez is not known by the casual, so-called crossover customer, who apparently couldn’t pick him out of a lineup that includes Joshua Clottey, Antonio Margarito and a couple of lampposts.
Arum’s argument about Marquez sounds like a rhetorical feint, if not an insult to Mexico’s many fans, who aren’t casual about their country’s best fighters. Besides, Pacquiao’s international stardom is such that I’m beginning to think he could draw a crowd against one of the lampposts, which might prove to be more durable than the faded Mosley.
There are plenty of reasons for Marquez’ absence from the ballot. Plenty of blame, too. Start here. Start with me. I didn’t nominate him, mostly because I overlooked him all over again and also because I would not vote for him even if he were a 2010 nominee. My vote is for Martinez, the likely winner for his rocket-like rise to prominence with a victory over Kelly Pavlik and dramatic knockout of Paul Williams.
Hindsight and December hot debate about Pacquiao against Mosley instead of Marquez, however, forced me to re-think the ballot. Instead of Klitschko or Ward or even Segura, Marquez should have been one of the five nominees.
Klitschko retained his heavyweight control of the Euro zone with victories over Samuel Peter and Eddie Chambers. He figured to win both.
In opponent shuffles that have plagued the 168-pound division’s Super Six, Ward beat Sakio Bika and over-matched Allan Green. No surprise there either.
Segura, a Mexican junior-flyweight, proved to be as much of a surprise as he is unknown. In 2010, Segura went 4-0, adding the World Boxing Organization’s 108-pound title to the World Boxing Association’s version in a run that included a stunner – a stoppage of Puerto Rican Ivan Calderon in a bout nominated for Fight of the Year.
OK, keep Segura on the ballot. Instead, subtract Klitschko or Ward and add Marquez, who came back from a one-sided loss in late 2009 to a bigger Floyd Mayweather Jr. with victories in 2010 over Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis.
In July, Marquez won a unanimous decision over Diaz in a rematch of a Marquez victory, a ninth-round stoppage, in the 2009 Fight of the Year. In November, a dramatic ninth-round TKO of Katsidis is on the 2010 ballot for Fight of the Year. If a victory in a fight voted as the best in one year followed by another win in a fight nominated to be the best in the next year doesn’t add up to some consideration for Fighter of this Year, what does?
Even if he doesn’t win the vote, his nomination represents a measure of respect that has been withheld, perhaps because of his consistency. The 34-year-old Marquez, who fought Pacquiao to a draw before losing a controversial split-decision to the Filipino, has been practicing it for so long that there is nothing new about his tactical brilliance. It’s expected, meaning that – yawn – it’s assumed and easy to forget.
Too easy.
I forgot about Marquez and so did my colleagues. The BWAA selected Pacquiao as Fighter of the Decade, which makes Marquez the Most Unappreciated Fighter of those same 10 years. If we can’t put Marquez on the ballot, it’s hard to rip Arum for not making the rematch in a rivalry that is a third leg short of being a decisive trilogy.
