By Robert Brown: This past Saturday night we saw the long awaited third fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao, this fight would either cement Manny Pacquiao’s claims as the pound for pound best fighter in the world, or prove as he indeed previously claimed that Marquez had won the previous two fights despite the judges decisions of a draw and a 1 point decision to Pacquiao.
It appeared that Manny Pacquiao was again going to have trouble solving the riddle of Marquez, Marquez was in my opinion successfully stepping away outside of the reach of Pacquiao’s left hand and throwing and landing successful right hands to the body and the head.
Manny Pacquiao again same as in the Mosley fight showed and inability to cut off the ring and trap Marquez in the corner to successfully unload his combinations which aloud Marquez easily to get away from Pacquiao’s left hand which in return gave Marquez a multitude of avenues for counter punching which he successfully delivered on a number of occasions.
Pacquiao at the end of some rounds would land one maybe two punches at the end of his flurries but not enough to successfully win the rounds as far as I was concerned, I watched two versions of the fight over the weekend, one being a UK version of the broadcast and the other one being the US version, both couldn’t be more opposite in their assessments of the fight.
The UK broadcasters had Marquez comfortably ahead. The UK broadcast even included 140 lb world champion and Pacquiao sparring partner Amir Khan who himself had Marquez comfortably ahead in the fight and he seemed almost resigned to the fact that Pacquiao would lose. The US broadcasters had Pacquiao well ahead and Harold Lederman to my astonishment had Pacquiao ahead and used reasons such as affective aggression and ring generalship, which was a source of utter confusion and dismay for me, because it seemed to my eyes that Marquez was confusing Pacquiao with his general command of the ring.
This was making Pacquiao at certain stages looked confused and befuddled and through his subtle movements to the side and precise counter punching was at times making Pacquiao look ordinary and extremely ineffective and towards the end of the fight there was no question in my mind that even if the judges got it wrong, in my eyes the worst that Marquez could possible get in terms of an outcome would be a draw. When the first score card was announced 114 / 114, I thought to myself here we go again another draw but when the second score card was announced 115 / 113 the unthinkable went through my head “oh my god” they’re going to give it to Pacquiao and when the final announcement was made I felt guttered for the sport and I felt guttered for Marquez.
Since this fight, it has become clear to me that there will not be in my opinion a super bout with Floyd Mayweather, there will be a forth match with Marquez, which now has been proven will be a much closer and more competitive fight than against Mayweather.
I wrote several months ago after the Mosley fight that Pacquiao was on the decline and would lose a fight against Mayweather easily and I was criticized heavily as a result and now it appears since this fight has concluded that my predictions have been proven correct. However, I am not here to gloat I’m here to simply state the fact that unless Pacquiao can win a decisive decision against Marquez or knock him out that Pacquiao does not disserve the much anticipated super bout against Mayweather.
In conclusion, the Pacquiao / Marquez trilogy appears to have all the hallmarks of the Ali / Norton trilogy, where Norton appeared to clearly win two out of the three fights but did not get the wins on his record. And it appears Marquez could not get passed the Pacquiao mystique and has appeared to have suffered the same fate as Norton.