Juan Manuel Marquez agrees to terms for third Manny Pacquiao

It looks like Juan Manuel Marquez will get his long-awaited third fight with pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN.com that he made a deal with Marquez on Tuesday in Los Angeles for the lightweight champion to move up in weight to challenge Pacquiao for his welterweight title on Nov. 12.

Arum, however, still needs to make a deal with Pacquiao -- considered a formality -- before the fight is official.

If the fight is finalized, they would meet at a contract weight of 144 pounds, Arum said. Although the weight is three pounds below the welterweight division limit of 147, that isn't an issue.

"Manny has to eat extra meals just to weigh even 145 pounds," Arum said.

Pacquiao regularly weighs below 147 for his fights, and Marquez would be moving up from the 135-pound division. In 2009, in his only other welterweight fight, Marquez lost a lopsided decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr., who most would like to see Pacquiao face. Most believe it would be the biggest money fight in boxing history, but Mayweather has repeatedly declined the fight.

Barring a gargantuan offer elsewhere, Pacquiao-Marquez Round III will be at Las Vegas' MGM Grand, where Pacquiao-Marquez Round I took place and where Pacquiao scored an easy decision against Shane Mosley on May 7.

With the Pacquiao fight on the line, Arum said Marquez plans to take a tune-up against faded former lightweight titlist David Diaz (36-3-1, 17 KOs) on July 2 in Mexico City. Diaz lost his title to Pacquiao via a lopsided ninth-round knockout in 2008.

Marquez's own promotional company will put the card on, although Arum said Top Rank would help if needed. Arum said Marquez's deal for the Pacquiao bout permitted him an interim fight as long as it takes place by July 17.

"He's going to do that fight, and if he loses, he's out," Arum said.

Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KOs) and Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KOs) have a rich history, battling twice in action-packed fights that ended in controversial decisions.

In 2004, Pacquiao dropped Marquez three times in the first round of their featherweight championship fight, but Marquez battled back to claim a draw that many believed he won. In 2008, they met again for the junior lightweight championship, and Pacquiao won a similarly controversial split decision.

"It's the same old story -- styles make fights, and, for some reason, I believe if we fight Marquez 10 times, we will have controversy 10 times because he's figured something out about Manny that no other fighter can do," Michael Koncz, Pacquiao's adviser, told ESPN.com. "We've had him down three times, but he's able to adapt and adjust. I think it will be a very close fight again if we decide to pick that fight. The question is, what is Manny's monetary reward?"

Mexico's Marquez, 37, has wanted a third fight with Pacquiao for years and is poised to land it because Golden Boy, his longtime promoter, declined to match Top Rank's offer. Marquez's deal with Golden Boy expired earlier this year, but it retained the right to match any offer through February 2012.

Top Rank and Golden Boy, involved in various lawsuits, are bitter rivals. Their bad blood stems from a legal fight over Pacquiao's promotional contract, which Top Rank now controls.

Arum said Golden Boy declined to match his offer to Marquez on Monday during a face-to-face meeting in Los Angeles that included Arum, Top Rank president Todd duBoef and Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer.

While Arum would not go into details of the meeting, a surprise given the rancor between them, he said of Golden Boy, "They said they would cooperate and not try to interfere. They waived any connection with Marquez and said they would not interfere with us contracting the fight. They let us know that we were free to go ahead. Schaefer let us know. We were with him yesterday.

"He told us we could go ahead with Marquez."

"I can't really talk about anything right now based on the advice of my lawyers," Schaefer told ESPN.com in an email.

Golden Boy apparently was unable to come up with an opponent for Marquez that would meet the terms of Top Rank's offer: $5 million in guaranteed money, upside on the pay-per-view profits and a guaranteed $10 million plus pay-per-view upside for a rematch in the event Marquez wins.

Golden Boy had toyed with offering Marquez a fight with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, the Mexican sensation who recently won a junior middleweight belt.

Alvarez, who defends his title in June, has fought most of his career at welterweight. However, with Top Rank's offer specifying 144 pounds, there was no way Alvarez could get down that low.

Arum's next hurdle is to close a deal with Pacquiao, which has never been a problem.

"Marquez is definitely the frontrunner we're looking at, but I have not yet sat down with Bob to discuss our financial deal," Koncz said. "Bob and I will do that this week before I leave to go see Manny in the Philippines on Sunday. I'll talk with Bob and see what his offer for Manny's purse is and all the other things involved, and then I will take that to Manny. I have the parameters from Manny, but Bob and I have not yet had a meeting of the minds.

"Bob has one component for the fight, but he needs two. We have not agreed to the fight or the terms, but we are certainly discussing it. We've always been able to come to an agreement."

Pacquiao's next fight will be on pay-per-view, but it remains to be seen if it will go to Showtime or HBO. Showtime produced and distributed Pacquiao-Mosley after Arum took Pacquiao away from HBO, which had done all of Pacquiao's previous major fights. Showtime got the fight because its sister network, CBS -- which is in roughly 115 million homes -- was heavily involved in the marketing and promotion of the event.

"We will listen to both networks and make our decision based on who is contributing the most valuable assets to the promotion," Arum said. "Who is going to give us the best platform to promote the fight will get the fight."

Arum said the fight almost assuredly will be at the MGM Grand, even though there are overseas venues interested in making offers.

"I've been spending my life with these offers from Singapore, Macau, Dubai," Arum said. "As far as I am concerned the only offer to cash in on are the ones from the MGM and Cowboys Stadium [where Pacquiao fought twice in 2010]."

Arum said the MGM Grand originally told him the Grand Garden Arena was only available on Nov. 5 because there were Eagles concerts booked there on Nov. 12 and Nov. 19.

"I told them, 'You knew we wanted Nov. 12,' " Arum said. "They said, no I didn't, whatever, we went back and forth. Anyway, I am good friends with the manager of the Eagles, Irving Azoff. I've know him for years. So I called him up and told him the issue and he called the band. An hour later, he called back and said no problem.

"He said the band wanted to send us a message -- 'Because we so admire Manny Pacquiao, we would be privileged to move our concert to Nov. 5.' We're going to invite the Eagles to the fight."

Arum said Marquez is the only legitimate option he is looking at for Pacquiao. He mentioned Zab Judah and Timothy Bradley Jr., both junior welterweight titleholders, as alternatives to Marquez immediately after Pacquiao beat Mosley, but he said neither are likely.

"Bradley I cannot talk to because he is still under contract to Gary Shaw, even if he is unhappy," Arum said. "His contract allegedly runs out at a certain point soon, but not yet. So I'm not going to go there. I could make a deal with [Main Events promoter] Kathy Duva for a Judah fight in five minutes, but that is not my plan. If [Pacquiao] wants to explore Judah, I'll explore Judah."

Mosley --Pacquiao ,,,,,which dog will have their day??

Shane Mosley, the former three-division world champion, has heard it before -- that he is too old and doesn't have much of a chance to win.

That was the conventional wisdom as he prepared to fight then-welterweight titleholder Antonio Margarito in January 2009. Mosley was coming off a shaky performance in a 12th-round knockout of Ricardo Mayorga, and, before the Mayorga fight, Mosley had suffered a decision loss to Miguel Cotto (albeit a highly competitive one) in a welterweight title bout.

So what happened to underdog Mosley against Margarito? He only destroyed Margarito, who had been stripped of the loaded hand wraps he had been caught trying to enter the ring with.

Pacquiao-Mosley

TV lineup for the Top Rank-promoted Showtime pay-per-view card on May 7 (9 p.m. ET, $54.95) from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas:

• Welterweights: Manny Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KOs) vs. Shane Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KOs), 12 rounds, for Pacquiao's title

• Super middleweights: Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KOs) vs. Alfonso Lopez (21-0, 16 KOs), 10 rounds

• Junior featherweights: Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (20-0-1, 17 KOs) vs. Jorge Arce (56-6-2, 43 KOs), 12 rounds, for Vazquez's title

• Junior welterweights: Mike Alvarado (29-0, 21 KOs) vs. Ray Narh (25-1, 21 KOs), 10 rounds

Mosley looked great that night, beating down supposedly indestructible Margarito and knocking him out in the ninth round. The California native proved that he was, by no means, a spent bullet.

Mosley, however, finds himself in a similar position again as he heads into his showdown with pound-for-pound king and welterweight titlist Manny Pacquiao on Saturday night (Showtime pay-per-view, 9 p.m. ET, $54.95) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The reason is simple: After the big win against Margarito, Mosley couldn't continue his top-level performances. Although Mosley briefly hurt Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the second round of their fight last May, it was his only moment of consequence in the fight.

Mayweather easily outboxed Mosley to win a near-shutout decision. Mosley looked old and slow and was unable to get off many punches in the resounding defeat.

Next came an unwatchable draw against Sergio Mora in a September junior middleweight bout. Most ringside observers thought Mosley had pulled it out, but it still wasn't the kind of performance that impressed anyone.

If anything, it was another example of just how far Mosley has slipped since his dazzling early-2000s prime, when he was welterweight champ for the first time and widely considered the No. 1 fighter on the pound-for-pound list.

Mosley, who had pleaded for a fight with Pacquiao for the past few years, finally got it, but he is the first to admit that his performances against Mayweather and Mora left a lot to be desired. Mosley is realistic about those fights, understanding that his vulnerability is one of the key reasons that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum extended him an offer to face Pacquiao, his cash cow.

"I don't think [Mayweather or Mora] will have anything to do with what I do against Pacquiao because styles make fights," Mosley said. "But if it wasn't for those two fights, I probably wouldn't be here today. So those fights were needed."

Still, Mosley, 39, has been a determined fighter throughout his career. He said he is using his underdog status to help motivate himself against Pacquiao.

"I don't care that people are saying I'm an underdog or not," Mosley said. "What matters is what happens in the ring. It only matters what happens [Saturday]. That's the only thing that matters.

"Watch and learn. I will prove people wrong."

Arum has ignored critics who have harped on Mosley's recent performances, saying his goal was to bring an entertaining fight to boxing fans against a well-known opponent.

AP Photo/Chris CarlsonWas Shane Mosley's draw against Sergio Mora in his last fight merely a bad day at the office or a sign that he's slowing down?

"The reason Shane was selected for this fight is because we know that we are in the entertainment business and we know that Manny Pacquiao against Shane Mosley will be one hellacious and entertaining fight," Arum said. "We picked Shane to fight Miguel Cotto a couple of years ago and to fight Antonio Margarito a couple of years ago. Shane is an all-action fighter, and when he is in with a guy who is an action fighter, as well, you are going to see fireworks and a real exciting fight."

Entertainment value aside, Arum is also selling Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KOs) as a serious threat to Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KOs).

"Nobody can count Shane Mosley out," Arum said. "He is a good, good fighter, especially when he fights an aggressive opponent like Manny Pacquiao. Shane Mosley is a dangerous fighter. He is bigger than Manny, strong, and he still has his speed. He has never been stopped. He can take anyone's best punch and come back as strong as ever. He's so resilient. You can't hurt him."

Those are Arum's public sentiments, but it hasn't stopped him from already working on a fall fight for Pacquiao against rival Juan Manuel Marquez. In their two fights, Pacquiao owns a draw and a split-decision victory in fights that could have gone either way.

Arum has refused to discuss the offer made to Marquez in the midst of the promotion for Saturday's fight, but Mosley didn't sound too offended.

"That's fine," Mosley said. "Sometimes as businesspeople you have to look to make the next fight and the next fight. I think that's what makes Top Rank such a great promoter. That's for them to think that way and not for me to think that way. I have to think about [Saturday] and take care of [Saturday]."

Pacquiao is always busy in a swirl of activity outside the ring, even when preparing for a fight. Pacquiao has made numerous promotional appearances, saw the launch of his first music CD last week and has signed various endorsement deals.

Still, the Filipino icon and only eight-division titleholder in boxing history said he isn't looking past Mosley.

"Shane Mosley is still very strong, and he moves more like he's 30 years old," said 32-year-old Pacquiao. "He's the kind of fighter who is bigger than me. Pound-for-pound, he's still good.

"Shane can still fight. He's determined to shock the world."

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, is also expecting a tough fight and said Pacquiao trained as if he would get one.

"We're 100 percent ready for the fight," Roach said. "If Mosley brings his best, we're ready for his best. I don't think there is any room for an upset, but in boxing you never know. We're 100 percent ready on our end. We've done everything we can to get ready for the fight.

"We're definitely looking at [video of] his best fights because we expect him to be at his best. The Margarito fight he looked great, and Margarito has an aggressive style like Manny and that's how we'll attack him. It will be a little more scientific, of course, but we're ready for the best Shane Mosley out there."

Naazim Richardson, Mosley's trainer, has worked with Mosley for his past few fights, and he worked with all-time great Bernard Hopkins for many years. Even though Mosley has had poor performances in his past two fights, Richardson is convinced his fighter can still summon one more big effort to dethrone Pacquiao.

Richardson noted that fighters such as Erik Morales and Hopkins, older fighters past their primes, put on outstanding -- and unexpectedly good -- performances in their last bouts.

Morales turned back the clock in a sensational battle against Marcos Maidana last month despite a majority decision loss. Hopkins was held to a controversial draw when he challenged light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal in December.

"Most of you saw the Erik Morales fight and most of you saw the Pascal-Hopkins fight, and we keep counting these guys out," Richardson said. "These aren't just old men who box. These are legendary fighters who have age on them now. There's a difference between a legendary fighter who has age and an old boxer. These aren't just men. When these guys were in their prime, they were exceptional. Michael Jordan could probably still come out now and make the starting five on any team in the NBA. We discount these older guys, but we forget these were special guys. When special gets old, you can still be extraordinary."

Richardson counts Mosley in the category of "legendary fighter with age on" and said he expects a big performance from Mosley on Saturday. He wants Mosley to get proper credit if he should pull the upset.

"When 'Sugar' Shane Mosley scores this incredible victory over Manny Pacquiao, I don't want Manny to be declawed or defanged," Richardson said. "I don't want people to reduce Manny into distraction. I don't want to hear that Manny is only 2 inches tall and weighs 32 ounces. I don't want to hear any of these things that I've heard.

"They say he's a killer and the most monstrous fighter out there today, so Shane should get his full amount of due when he pulls this victory off."

Mosley has done it before.