Octopus picks Marquez over Diaz

The Giant Pacific octopus at Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef Aquarium on Thursday went with the safe pick to win Saturday's fight -- Juan Manuel Marquez over Juan Diaz.

Aquarium employees lowered on a platform two containers -- one marked Marquez, the other Diaz -- that each held a prawn into the octopus' tank and it pounced on the Marquez box.

It took the octopus 4 minutes, 30 second to open the lid and eat the prawn, thus finalizing his prediction.

"Diaz doesn't have a chance," one onlooker said ruefully.

Several onlookers noted that the octopus was on Marquez's side of the tank when the containers were lowered, giving the Mexican an unfair advantage in the prediction process.

However, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, trying to maintain the integrity of the process, noted that "we had no idea which side the octopus would be on when we lowered the containers."

Good point.

The 40-pound octopus follows in the footsteps of Paul, the famous German octopus that went 8-for-8 in his predictions during the World Cup soccer tournament.