By Bryant Maxwell – Manny Pacquiao is considered Pound for Pound the greatest boxer in the world today. Juan Manuel Marquez is widely considered the second best fighter in the world today according to Ring Magazine. During their two fights, Manny has won one and they have drawn one. The first fight being a draw with scores of Judge John Stewart 110-115 for Manny, Judge Burt Clements 113-113 and Judge Guy Jutras 115-110 for Marquez. Marquez being knocked down three times early in the first fight came back to force a draw. With the second fight being scored by Judge Duane Ford 112-115 for Manny, Judge Jerry Roth 115-112 for Marquez and Judge Tom Miller 113-114 for Manny; clearly the knockdown early in this fight was the difference..
When one looks at the scorecards between the 24 hard fought rounds between the two, Marquez clearly won the majority of the rounds, but the flash knockdowns has since hurt his chances of being the true pound for pound champion of the world. But since their last fight, has Manny been outdone fight after fight by Marquez?
After the two clashed at Super Featherweight, Manny went up to lightweight and challenged David Diaz for the WBC Lightweight title for his next fight. Winning heavily on all scorecards Manny managed to TKO the former champion Diaz in nine rounds; in what seemed like a great feat at the time. But was Diaz truly considered a great champion after being given the full WBC belt after beating unproven Jose Armando Santa Cruz for the Interim WBC Lightweight Championship? His only defense of his title was a hard fought battle against an over the hill Erik Morales; a fighter whom Manny had already defeated convincingly twice before.
Meanwhile Juan Manuel Marquez also went up to Lightweight following his fight with Manny, And scored a TKO over a very formidable opponent in Joel Casamayor who was coming off a TKO victory over the previously unbeaten Michael Katsidis for the Interim WBO Lightweight Championship. Casamayor wasn’t on the losing end of a fight since 2004; a fight for the WBC title, in which he lost a close split-decision against Jose Luis Castillo.
After the David Diaz fight Manny went on to fight Oscar De La Hoya at welterweight. Oscar was defeated by TKO by a more faster and hungrier fighter. Clearly Oscar was weight drained coming down to welterweight for the first time in twelve years. Before the fight Manny was clearly the underdog; mainly because of the size disadvantage that Oscar presented. Manny showed his speed and quickness over the much larger man, but we all know Oscar hasn’t been in his prime since dinosaurs roamed the earth, coming off a lackluster effort against another smaller foe, Steve “2 pounds” Forbes.
Marquez continued at Lightweight and fought a prime 25 year old Champion in Juan Diaz. This fight was very entertaining and still could be Fight of the Year. This showed Marquez adjust to a much younger fighter who was willing to brawl for the entire fight. Marquez brawled a little and boxed even more en-route to a ninth round TKO win for the WBA, WBO and Ring Magazine titles.
Manny Pacquiao then fought Ricky Hatton and quickly knocked him out in the 2nd Round for the 140lb title. But just before the fight occurred Juan Manuel Marquez stole the show once again and showed that he should be considered for the top Pound for Pound spot, when he signed on to fight the undefeated former P4P king, Floyd Mayweather Jr. two weight classes above at welterweight. We must remember that Marquez has only recently fought above 130lbs twice and if Marquez should win this fight, he has officially outdone Manny fight after fight since his lost to him early last year. A win for Marquez over Mayweather shall definitely catapult him to “Number One/Numero Uno,” regardless of his two losses against Manny.