Referees Cortez, Bayless reflect on Pacquiao-Marquez I and II - Next

Referee Tony Weeks will be the third man in the ring for Pacquiao-Marquez III, but Bayless will be on hand as a spectator, this, after having officiated an earlier undercard bout.

"Tomorrow, I'm expecting the same thing that has happened in their first two fights. I am expecting to see a tough, hard gruelling fight. In my fight, Pacquiao, I believe, might have won the earlier rounds, but then Marquez came back in the later rounds, And then if it wasn't for the knockdown, then it would have ended up a draw," said Bayless. 

"That's why I don't think that there will be a knockout. But if there is a knockout in that fight, then that guy is going to be truly knocked out for this not to go the distance. That's because of their heart. I mean, these guys truly are fighting from the heart."

While Cortez won't make a prediction on the result, he agrees that Pacquiao-Marquez III should be another one for the ages.

"Marquez has the heart of a champion and the heart of a tiger. He'll go down, but he'll get up like a true champion. Pacquiao? What else can you say about Pacquiao? I've had him on about four different occasions, and that's another guy with the heart of a lion who comes to fight," said Cortez.

"I say to myself, 'Thank God that I was the referee in their first fight,' because had I been another referee, I don't know if another referee would have let it go after the three knockdowns. But because I opted to let the fight continue, here we are going into a trilogy. But this is the kind of fight that boxing needs. These are the kinds of fighters boxing needs -- fighters like Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez."

Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com