Pacquiao, Marquez come in under weight limit for title fight

By Bob Velin, USA TODAY Updated 1h 32m ago

LAS VEGAS – The weigh-in for Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez Friday for their big fight on Saturday night at the MGM Grand was a mere formality.

Manny Pacquiao, left, and Juan Manuel Marquez, stand toe-to-toe during their weigh-in on Friday in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao, the WBO welterweight champion, and Marquez, the current WBO lightweight titlist, have never had problems making weight, especially at the higher weights. Both fighters are obsessed with staying in shape, and both are naturally lighter weight fighters.

And true to form, Marquez, despite appearing much bigger in the upper body, weighed in at 142 pounds, two below the limit.
BLOG: Saturday coverage of Pacquiao-Marquez
Pacquiao weighed in at 143.

So coming in under the catchweight for this fight of 144 pounds was no sweat for the two men who will fight for Pacquiao's WBO welterweight belt in an HBO pay-per-view event (9 p.m. ET).

If Pacquiao and Marquez had to be weighed with the cash they will take from this fight, they would likely come in well over the limit, especially Pacman.
Pacquiao is guaranteed $22 million, plus a share of the pay-per-view take, which Top Rank chairman Bob Arum says could come in around $30 million. Marquez, he said, is guaranteed $5 million with up to $5 million more for the PPV buys.

Asked what he thought of the crowd of 4,500 inside the Grand Garden Arena, Pacquiao said, "I like the fans screaming." Which, of course, made them scream even louder.

"I really need to have my best performance in this fight," he said. "I don't want to disappoint the fans. We've trained hard for this fight."

Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KOs) said between now and the fight, he would "just rest and prepare for the battle tomorrow."

Marquez (53-5-1, 39 KOs), now 38, said he's completing his trilogy with Pacquiao because "I want to fight the best pound-for-pound fighter, so this is the most important fight" of my career.

His Hall of Fame trainer, Nacho Beristain, said this fight "means everything, and when we win, it will be a great fight for the fight fans and the Mexicans and all fight fans."

One of the fighters on the undercard, 40-year-old Joel Casamayor, the Cuban defector and a former star in the sport, who will challenge Timothy Bradley for Bradley's WBO light welterweight belt, came in one pound overweight.
Casamayor (38-5-1, 22 KOs) had two hours to take off the one pound, and he did, coming in at 140.

Bradley (27-0, 11 KOs), fighting for the first time under the Top Rank banner, came in at exactly 140 pounds.

"Only my team, my family around me, they know how disciplined I am, how hard I work," Bradley said Thursday. "These last eight, nine months, I've been in the lab to get better. All the criticism everybody said about me, I want to prove everybody wrong.

"I don't fear any man. I don't fear Joel Casamayor. Do I feel he's a threat? Absolutely not. I want to destroy this guy."