Sometimes in the sport of boxing, a loss can open up more
opportunities than a win as evident with “Mighty” Mike Alvarado’s upcoming bout
with Juan Manuel Marquez next month. Their fight, contested at a catch weight
of 143 pounds, pits two former champions coming off of clear losses in their
last fights and must win to continue their careers.
However, this fight wasn’t made with competitiveness in
mind. For all the parties involved, this fight is supposed to kick off what
will end up being HBOs biggest promotion of the year: A fifth (and God help me,
final) fight between Marquez and Manny Pacquiao.
When one looks at it from this perspective, there is no
better fall guy to put these events in motion than Alvarado. Marquez is at the
age where he can no longer compete with the best and must carefully choose his
opponents to prolong his career, or at least to make it to his last major
payday.
Last October, Timothy Bradley soundly outpointed Marquez and
there was nothing in his performance that suggested that he would perform
better in a rematch. Ruslan Provodnikov had gone out of his way to try to get
Marquez to fight him, but Provodnikov’s youth and strength may call for Marquez
to dig deeper than he can muster for a relatively small reward, so he slyly
downplayed that fight in the press.
Pacquiao, who Marquez knocked out nearly dead in their
fourth fight, represents a fight to him that is both marketable and winnable.
The Filipino legend, like Marquez, is at the end of his career as well and also
is looking for the best financial excursions he can find himself in. Though
Marquez swore to never tarnish his empathetic win over his rival, the need for
money always changes people’s minds.
Marquez claimed that the reason he decided to not retire
after knocking Pacquiao out was that he wanted to win a fifth world title,
leading to the Bradley setback and ultimately for another shot at Pacquiao.
Pacquiao should walk out with a win against Bradley next weekend, more than
likely by extreme controversy, but regardless if Pacquiao wins or not, Marquez
is next.
Bob Arum, Top Rank President, wants the fight and HBOs lack
of a marketable roster at this point makes their fall schedule looking feeble
and unappealing. Arum, who more or less is playing puppet master to HBO Sports
President Ken Herhsman won’t let any obstacle interfere in his master plan and
for all to go well, Marquez and Pacquiao must look impressive in their next outings.
For that reason primarily, Alvarado got the assignment not
necessarily to compete, but rather to play the part of the fall guy. Another
reason could be that Arum is hoping to kill two birds with one stone.
Nobody has had a tougher series of fights in the sport as
Alvarado. For the past two years, Alvarado has been pummeled night after night
be it in victory and defeat and is in dire need of a break. The Denver native
and former Junior Welterweight champion was last seen getting viciously beaten
by Provodnikov last October, that fight coming less than six months after going
1-1 in two wars with Brandon Rios.
Ahead of the Provodnikov fight, Alvarado looked to be in
terrible condition; which was a big contributing factor to the pounding he took
from the Siberian terminator. It’s not out of the question to suggest that such
a long stretch of physically demanded fights has whittled Alvarado down
physically, but it falls right into the hands of the matchmakers hoping for a
Marquez KO.
Since the Provodnikov fight, Alvarado found himself
implicated in a bizarre incident where he allegedly dumped his SUV into a river in
his native Denver. Alvarado is no stranger to controversy or being on the wrong
side of the law, almost four years ago, Alvarado completed an 18-month prison
sentence for violating his probation stemming from domestic and traffic
offenses and also was allegedly involved in a physical altercation where
Alvarado was slashed and stabbed while training for the rematch with Rios.
Perhaps feeling a sense of déjà vu from when they had to
deal with the mentally combustible, yet physically gifted Kelly Pavlik, Top
Rank sees this as an opportunity to put Alvarado out to pasture and wash their
hands of him.
While Marquez no longer has the reflexes and defensive
movement he had in his younger years, he’s dumbed himself down into becoming a
one-punch destroyer against any opponent who stands right in front of him.
Alvarado, if he’s not totally shot from his string of fights, has a great
chance to upset the apple cart against the aging legend but he’ll have to do it
by swimming against the current.
A Marquez loss won’t derail the Pacquiao fight, nor will a
Pacquiao loss and that’s a fact. Alvarado isn’t expected to win, but with his
back to the wall and being lead to ruin, he’s going to do everything he can to
throw the wrench into the bigger scheme of things.
One can only imagine how the landscape will change with an outcome nobody is expecting.
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