Phantom Maelstrom

Perhaps, of the three Manny Pacquiao versus Juan Manuel Marquez fights, this third installment is the most controversial fight of all. On November 12th (November 13 here on the Philippines), the fight between the Filipino champ Manny Pacquiao and Mexico's El Dinamita Marquez took place in the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, USA. Both fighters are determined to win; the challenger Marquez was giving his best shot to get Pacquiao's belt while the defender also gave his best to keep it.

Manny Pacquiao (real name: Emmanuel "Manny" Depidran Pacquiao) is a Filipino professional boxer. He is the first eight-division world champion; having won six world titles, as well as the first to win the lineal championship in four different classes. He is referred to as the "Pambansang Kamao" or National Fist or Knuckle by his fellow Filipinos, and was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000s by the BWAA. He is also a three-time The Ring and BWAA "fighter of the Year", winning the award in 2006, 2008, and 2009. Currently, he is the WBO Welterweight World Champion, and rated as the best pound for pound boxer in the world by most sporting news and boxing websites.

The challenger Juan Manuel Marquez Mendez is a Mexican professional boxer. He is the fourth Mexican-born boxer to become a three-division world champion, where he won eight world titles in three different boxing weight classes. Currently, Marquez is the WBA Super, WBO and The Ring Lightweight World Champion. He is rated as the number five pound for pound boxer in the world.

And as you can see, both fighters are not just ordinary boxers, they are really world class boxers. And in this event, both clashed and made one stunning fight. Marquez is an excellent counter puncher, which Pacquiao find very challenging. He wasn't the same Marquez Pacquiao fought before in the last two fights. This kind of Marquez was more cunning. While in my own humble opinion, I did not find Marquez too aggressive for he was most of the time in the defensive mode, waiting for Pacquiao to attack then unleash his devastating counterattacks, he still deserves my respect though. He was also fast enough to dodge some of Pacquiao's powerful blows. However, after the 12-round boxing, and the scores were announced, the results were 114-114, 115-113 in favor of Manny, and 116-112 still in favor of Manny, thus Pacquiao still emerged as the champion. However, not everyone was happy with the results, particularly the Mexicans. They believe Marquez had outscored Pacquiao and Marquez was cheated. Even a dismayed Marquez had walked out without even congratulating Pacquiao, it seems he wasn't able to accept his defeat.



Press Conference with Juan Manuel Marquez.

Now Marquez along with his supporters believe that he was being robbed of victory, the judges were in favor of Pacquiao, he then goes on to say that even if he had put him down on the canvas, they would still put him up. He also announce plans of retiring and end his pursuit of beating the champion, as he had said... no matter what he'll do, they would still declare Pacquiao the champion. He also goes on to boast that he won the fight, including the previous fights... or so he had thought?

But let's face the facts, in boxing context doesn't matter. The best judges never favor champion over challenger or vice versa. They look beyond a fighter's record and history. They only look at the fight at hand.

We should also take into consideration the fact that different judges have different tastes. Some prefer aggressors; the ones who push the action and chase opponents all over the ring. While other judges focus on cleaner shots. Judges should also disregard continuity, for example, what happens in round 5 shouldn't affect how judges score round 6. However, let's face it, scoring a boxing match is no perfect science.

However, if you're still dissatisfied with the unanimous decision, watch the fight again, and score the fight round per round. Of course, we'll still get varying scores, but by doing this exercise, it will give you a cleaner picture of the fight. It might convince you that Pacquiao indeed won or it may support your belief that Marquez deserved the belt. But I'm sure that if you break it down per round. You will see that it was a very close fight. But a robbery? That's too much to say.

This fight may not be demonstrating Pacquiao's best performance, but it doesn't automatically make Pacquiao a loser.

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