When it comes to legendary boxing rivalries, Pacquiao vs. Marquez is right up there with the all-time greats. The two have fought 4 times already, with a draw in their first encounter, Pacquiao getting the edge the following 2 times, and Marquez getting the most definitive win of the series in their last bout. Most people feel if these two do step into the ring again that it could mean the end of a career for both men.
In part 2 of my interview with Brother Naazim Richardson, he discusses the recent victory of Juan Manuel Marquez and him performing at that level at the age of 40. Naazim also talks about a potential fifth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Marquez, and who he would pick to win, if that fight comes to fruition. Additionally, Richardson gives his views on Floyd Mayweather Jr. and talks about some of the fighters he is currently working with. Here is what Naazim Richardson had to say.
Jenna J: Juan Manuel Marquez returned recently against Mike Alvarado and looked as good as ever. What do you think of him doing what he’s doing at his age?
Naazim Richardson: What Juan Manuel Marquez is doing is very impressive and I will even say that I feel as though he’s right up there to what Hopkins is doing because of the weight class. The weight class where Marquez competes at is solely based on reflexes, speed and energy. For you to dominate at that weight class against these young guys is remarkable. That fight he fought was extremely impressive.
Jenna J: Marquez is being asked again to fight Manny Pacquiao and he’s considering it. Do you think that’s a bad idea?
Naazim Richardson: I support any decision that Nacho Beristain and Marquez make, but for my personal standpoint, that work’s complete. I don’t know what else is on the table and what’s available to a guy or where a guy feels personally, you only know that between coach and athlete, when you’re on the mark of a new endeavor.
There’s nothing more he can do for me in the Pacquiao fight. I thought he won all of them and won one definitively. I’m a Pacquiao fan, I’m a big Marquez fan and I rather see these guys go on with their careers on different paths.
Jenna J: Based on their last two fights, if you had to pick a winner between Marquez and Pacquiao, who would you pick?
Naazim Richardson: If I had to pick a winner right now, if you put me on the spot and forced my hand, it would have to be Marquez. I have to go with Marquez not just based on the fact that I always thought he knew how to fight Pacquiao, but I think his confidence and his strengths and that right now he appears to be a fighter right on top of his game, whereas Pacquiao even in the Tim Bradley fight, one fighter looked tired and the other fighter looked scared. Pacquiao fought that fight as if he was trying to punch and get out the way at the same time.
Jenna J: Do you think Pacquiao fought that fight trying to avoid getting hit with a big shot?
Naazim Richardson: Yeah, we don’t know if he’s gun shy or not but it looked a little bit that way in the Tim Bradley fight. Until Tim got tired, he didn’t even seem like he was having a problem with Pacquiao, but I think Tim played himself because he let the emotions of the public — this guy won a fight and started talking about committing suicide because the public is saying that he didn’t really win the fight.
Jenna J: Now that Timothy Bradley closed the Pacquiao chapter, where do you think he goes from here?
Naazim Richardson: We don’t know. Okay, so now you got the respect of the fans, you got a loss, God bless you, you happy now? Until he got emotionally caught up in the fight — and was walking through Pacquiao those first couple of rounds before he got tired, it wasn’t even competitive. Even the stuff Pacquiao was throwing, he was walking through that stuff.
Jenna J: Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced that he will be returning to the ring on September 13th. Do you think Floyd should move up and look for a fight at a higher weight class?
Naazim Richardson: Floyd moving up and taking a risk once again — I think him and his team, Ellerbe and his father and his uncle have made great decisions in guiding him this far, so I couldn’t be the one to say, “Hey you should go up and take a chance.” There are fighters who need that, and there are fighters who don’t.
I know B-Hop jumped from middleweight to light heavyweight and decided he wanted to try to dominate up there. There are guys who take those kinds of risks, there are guys who don’t want those risks. It says something for the guy who wants to jump over some of the barriers to get there and then the guy who says, “Well I’m gonna go around the long run on the road, just stay steady on that road and I’ll get there too.”
It’s the preference of the particular athlete and team — yeah we’d love to see him jump up and think maybe one of these bigger guys can give him more of a challenge. I’ve heard talk of a 50-50 fight with him and Bernard. Bernard is 50 years old and Floyd is in his 50th pro fight. Yes, all that’s intriguing.
I’m gonna go on the record and say, Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather in a 50-50 fight would be the biggest fight in boxing history. There would be nothing else that could even come close to it, nothing else with Oscar, nobody. The only thing that could have come close to it would have been Klitschko vs. Klitschko, and I’m not sure that would have been bigger, I just think that would have come close.
Jenna J: Naazim, can you talk about some of the other fighters you’re working with right now?
Naazim Richardson: Karl Dargan is ready to defend his title on June 21st at the Mohegan Sun up in the Poconos, it will be on NBC Sports. We’ve been keeping these young guys going up. Steve Cunningham just had a big win over Amir Mansour. But like I said we’re going on NBC Sports the 21st of June with Karl ‘Dynamite’ Dargan on it, and hopefully we’ll have Khalib ‘Bigfoot’ Whitmore on it, who is not 5-0 with 4 knockouts.
Marquez is a roid freak, No one can deny that anymore. He was tired of losing to a superior fighter like Pacquiao that he had to run and take hormones to look better. 8 division world champion
come on naazz freak pac hater marquez is on roids mexican cheater
NAAZIM RICHARDSON is a PAC hater. He is a trainer of Mosley destroyed by PAC, No wonder why Mosley lost to PAC because NAAZIM is blind. He & Nacho are the only trainer never seen that Marquez is on roids. even the proof & evidence definitely & obviously present. “THE LEGENDARY MEXICAN CHEATER”
Jenna stop fooling yourself. Even Mexicans believe Marquez is using PEDS. Are you a boxer? Why are you so envious of The Greatest of All Time?
these two guys pac and marquez will be a great fight. when evryone is in doubt pac give marquez a chance to prove himself. in their last fight pac was winning until he got caught cold. why not give pac a chance as well.
Why Jenna & Naazim can’t give an advice to Marqroid & Nacho to sue Mr. Conte who directly accused Marquez of using STEROID OR PEDS? Why Marquez & associates can’t SUE Victor Conte? Because MR. Conte is right.. Marquez & associates specially MEMO could expose during investigation & Mr. Conte will expose how MEMO magic PEDS can’t detect & How to detect. HA HA HA ” ONCE A CHEATER IS ALWAYS A CHEATER” Am I right Mr. MEMO?
What can you expect from this fukin nigger? He depends Marquez coz just like him, they are both drug users.marquez on PEDs and he is on stone. Look how he spoke? Just like a hallucinating user.
Bias statement coming from a big loser….make me laugh big time
Nazim is really jealous of Pacquiao achievement…because he don’t have a fighter that earns big on his stable …neglecting the fact that Marquez was trained by PEDS dealer
Richardson should be honest in his opinion or at least open his eyes when assessing a fight. The truth is Pacquiao won all his fights against Marquez and lost a winning one by a lucky punch from an obviously juiced boxer. The reason why they won’t allow Marquez to fight Pacquiao anymore is because Paquiao will demand a stringent drug test next time and Marquez will have no chance to win.
i dont like this muslim gorrila trainer if ive given a chance i want to kill this mother fucker gorrila nazeemshit hey OTR boxing radio stop interviewing this guy about pacquiao its full negative everytime you talk to this mother fucker gorilla
If there’s a proved PED user, it’s Shane Mosley. Guess who his trainer was.
Naazim ( turning sour) , Buang ka (You are crazy) . Stop saying you are a Pacman fan. Your comment clearly shows your not. In fact you and Floyd Sr. are sour graping since both of the fighter that each of you has trained fought and lost to Pacquiao. By reading what you’ve said, it is clear that you are trying to deminise the accomplishment of Pacquiao and at the same time giving credit to Junior and B-Hop..simply because you all are birds with the same feather.
If there are some African- American that suited to Ronal Sterling comments..they are Naazim, B-Hop and the Mayweathers (Chicken Floyd Jr., Floyd Sr. Jeff & Roger)
Angel “Memo” Heradia should be banned in boxing. He admitted giving PEDs to his athletes . He avoided conviction by turning state witness where he testified that he is also expert in masking PEDs usage. No wonder, his student enjoys the benefit of PEDs and eluded being caught.
Naazim is a hater, he hates Christian. From his name itself, we know where he came from.
From the start he’s been hating Pacquiao. His idols are mayweather Floydie,the father and uncles of Floyd those garbage talker .same feathers stick together. What a pity of this person! Talk a lot of stupid opinions.
This Naazim Richardson is a moron who doesn’t know anything about boxing.He has the right to express his own opinion but it shows how dumb he is when it comes to boxing.You can tell that he is a Pacquiao hater by the way he expresses his views regarding Pacquiao.Go to hell you psychotic maniac.
But the opinion of the majority contradicts to what Richardon is saying. The win-loss records say its 3-1 in favor of Pacquiao. In fact in their last fight Marquez was losing only for that lucky punch. Also, if not for PED, Marquez could not claim boxing glory at present in view of his age .
Naazim is Pacquiao hater since then..He is a cried funkin’ monkey since then..go to back in your african land…
marquez vs ruslan is the next exciting fight if marquez don’t want to fight pacquaio…
I’m an American and not one person agrees with nazzim. He hype bhopal like their is no tommorow..we know what bhop accomplished but quite frankly no one cares..He is good but not great I. The eyes of many.he talks like pacquiao is scared cuz how he throw his punch..well bhop throws one punch while he duck his chin at the same time..lol..He is the most boring fighter…mayweather fight with skills bhop man I don’t know what u call that.
What do you expect for him to say after Pac destroy his fighter shane mosley? He needs to shut his mouth because his opinion on pac is really making him look stupid and to lose a lot of credibility.
what a hypocrite who knows he knows everyone of them won by Marquez to what reason that Marquez is the better fighter when everyone else thought he is doping. there is no substitute for being a guy who thought he is a good trainer he ain’t. he was saying that record only shows the other side of the coin much like that having no recognition as being a great trainer that he was absolutely believing that he is a hall fame trainer. so what the record says is trainer of the year best trainer of the year hall fame roach is you can’t compare these achievement with Richardson who I believe is not a really good trainer in fact he was just a rider. a hitcher maybe. None of his so called assessment was correct, he is fu_kin’ unbelievable shit head.
Can he explain where did Marquez get those pimple in his fight against Alvarado and pacman? And no pimples in his loss to Bradley? The reason is Bradley is also a nigger like nazim, so Marquez was afraid to used PED or else nazim will expose him.
I thought this guy knows boxing. Marquez didn’t win sh..t and he certainly didn’t win the last one definitively. If this guy can’t tell a lucky punch, then he has no business being in boxing. Who this guy trained? Someone named Mosley, I think, who was so scared of the Pacman he didn’t know where several rounds went.
brother nazim in his usual “I’m a fan of PAC” then went on to lambast and discredit PAC…ha ha ha love it…move on brother…shane got whoped pretty bad.
@ naazim: giving marquez all the wins in pacquao fights is too much bsi you must be hungry for attention!