Arch boxing rivals Manny  “PacMan” Pacquiao and Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez of Mexico promised a decisive victory when they face each other for the third time Saturday night (Sunday in Manila) at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao and Marquez, who have both achieved elite status, are assured of record paydays in the battle for Pacquiao’s World Boxing Organization welterweight crown at the agreed weight limit of 144 pounds, three pounds less than the official welter limit of 147.

Las Vegas odds makers list Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 by knockouts) a 9-1 favorite to win over World Boxing Association and WBO lightweight titlist Marquez (53-5-1, 39 KOs) in their HBO pay per view televised showdown.

Record paydays
The Filipino boxing superstar is assured “a little more than $20 million” while the 38-year-old Marquez has a guaranteed purse of $5 million, according to promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank Promotions. These amounts could go up, depending on the pay-per-view sales on which both fighters are to receive a certain percentage.

Arum thinks pay-per-view sales could reach 1.5 million because of the interest generated by the close previous fights and the two elite fighters’ increased following.

Beyond the money and the glory, there is an undercurrent of tension, bordering on enmity, between two of the most exciting fighters who fought to a draw in 2004 and a split decision win by Pacquiao in 2008.

“He keeps saying he got robbed in the first two fights. This fight will answer all doubts, all the questions once and for all,” said Pacquiao, who promised the Saturday bout would be his “last fight” with Marquez.

Pacquiao, a first-term congressman who makes no secret about his presidential ambitions, said he has trained extra hard for the fight and promised a “different” fight from his two previous scraps with the Mexican counter-puncher.

“My countrymen, they’re going to watch this fight because Marquez went to the Philippines many times and he’s claiming that he won the fights, that he got robbed, so I just want to show that he’s wrong,” Pacquiao said in the third episode of HBO’s 24/7 to hype the big-money fight.

Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said PacMan felt slighted by Marquez traveling to the Philippines to demand an immediate rematch following their controversial second encounter on March 15, 2008.

Payback time
“Marquez went to Manny wearing a T-shirt that says he was robbed of victory, and Manny felt insulted,” said Roach, a four-time Trainer of the Year. “There’s been a spark and I know he is going to pay him back for this and payback is a bitch.”

Roach said he could sense the extra motivation Pacquiao brought to this eight-week training camp which the trainer described as “one of the best we’ve ever had.”

Roach, a five-time Trainer of the Year, thinks Pacquiao is primed for a decisive win and predicted the fight would not go past six rounds.

Marquez — who has evolved from a cautious, defensive technician into an aggressive counter-puncher — said he has trained long and hard for another shot at Pacquiao, who has won four more world titles in higher weight classes since their 2008 fight.

To this day, Marquez insists that he won both fights. In the first fight in 2004, the Mexican counter-puncher bucked three first round knock downs and rallied to keep his featherweight title via a disputed split draw. For the record, Pacquiao should have won that fight too had judge Burt Clements, who scored it a draw not scored the first round 10-7, instead of 10-6, as her colleagues did, to reflect the three knockdowns.

The second fight was just as close, with Pacquiao winning by split decision. The game changer was the only knock down scored by Pacquiao in the third round. Still, Marquez believes he had done enough to keep his World Boxing Council super featherweight title in that fight.

Controversial wins
“People always tell me, you won the first two fights, you can do it again,” he said through an interpreter. “All the fans tell me, do it for us. Do it for Mexico. That’s why we’re having this third fight to determine who the better fighter is.”

The only time Marquez fought at welterweight, he was knocked down and schooled over 12 rounds by the bigger and slick Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2009.

This time, Marquez said he is using a different approach, guided by his strength and conditioning coach Angel Hernandez on the proper way of bulking up and gaining strength without losing speed.

Hernandez, also known as Angel “Memo” Heredia, admitted to a shady past peddling prohibited drugs to Olympic athletes. He escaped federal prison by cooperating with authorities and squealing on his high-profile former clients.

‘Classic fight’
Arum and Marquez’ trainer Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain predicted a “classic fight” between the
two of the best fighters of their generation.

“I think this really comes down to the fact that Marquez has the style that will always give Manny Pacquiao trouble,” Arum said.

“Manny is the heavy favorite because of what he’s achieved in the ring, but Marquez is a great champion his own right, so I expect a classic fight between two of the best fighters in the world.”

Since their last fight three years ago, the 32-year-old Pacquiao has evolved into an explosive boxer-puncher with knockout power in both hands.

Marquez, a cautious counter-puncher has vastly improved also into an aggressive, hard punching technician with a high knockout rate.

Boxing experts, including two former elite champions, Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley, who have both lost to Pacquiao, think the crucial consideration in this fight is how Marquez would deal with Pacquiao’s power.

During a recent visit to Pacquiao at his training camp in the Wild Card Gym in West Hollywood, De La Hoya told a small group of Filipino journalists that Marquez’ age and his moving up in weight could be crucial to his chances.

Oscar picks Manny
“Manny is stronger, faster now, and Marquez is 38 years old. I think Manny is too fast and too strong for him,” said De La Hoya, who was forced into retirement after a lopsided loss to Pacquiao in December 2008.

Mosley, who tasted Pacquiao’s vaunted power in a third round knockdown in a prelude to a near-shutout loss last May 7, probably puts the third Pacquiao-Marquez encounter in context.

“If [Floyd] Mayweather can drop Marquez easily like that, if [Michael] Katsidis can stun him like that at lightweight, Pacquiao, when he hits him ... he’s going to hurt Marquez,” Mosley told Fight Hype’s Ben Thompson.

Mosley, a three-time world champ who once held the unified light middleweight titles of the world, thinks it would be foolish for Marquez to fight Pacquiao toe-to-toe.

“Marquez said he’s not going to run like Shane and he’s going to fight and all that bulls—t, so he’s asking for it,” Mosley said. “He’s gonna have his ass knocked out by what he’s doing.”

Mosley stressed that Pacquiao is now a full-fledged welterweight who has defeated some of the best welterweights of his generation — Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Oscar De La Hoya and him.

“Now, Pacquiao is a full-fledged welterweight, you know. His ass is almost that of a junior middleweight ... his legs are big, he’s built up, so Marquez is going to have problems,” he stressed.

Beristain, Marquez’ Hall of Fame trainer, acknowledged how great a champion Pacquiao is, but he thinks that his prized fighter has the technique and determination to beat PacMan, the consensus best boxer in the world pound-for-pound.

Beristain said that being a consummate technician, Marquez would fare better with a technically improved Pacquiao than the hard-swinging, unpredictable aggressor he was before.

Fight prognosis
As in their previous fights, expect Pacquiao and Marquez to let their hands go early in the fight.

Pacquiao will seize the initiative from the opening bell, looking for an early knockout, while Marquez sizes up his opponent’s power and counter-punch.

Pacquiao presses the attack as Marquez looks for openings to unload bombs of his own.

Pacquiao gets the better of furious exchanges and hurts Marquez. But unlike Mosley and Miguel Cotto, who shifted to defense mode after being decked early, the warrior in Marquez spurs him to trade punches until the referee stops the fight.

Pacquiao wins by technical knockout in the late rounds.