Pacman wins close one

...and still WBO Welterweight champion of the World......

Manny "the Pacman" Pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao fought the fight of his life as he narrowly beat the one person who has got him figured out - Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico. A lot of Filipinos were disappointed and dismayed with the outcome with a lot also claiming that Marquez have actually won. That they say is the problem with the Filipinos not realizing that in boxing, like basketball there are nights when a team cannot figure out one specific team that has got his moves figured out. In all his opponents, the counterpunching of Marquez has definitely been the achilles heel of Pacquiao.

Pacquiao has never lost to Marquez

but Marquez thinks he won all three

But then again, Marquez was just waiting for Pacquiao to make a mistake. Pacquiao was the aggressor most of the time which Marquez liked because every time Pacquiao would land something he makes it a point to retaliate with what he has got. But then again, the good thing with Pacquiao is that he makes it a point to land a lot of punches that would eventually augur well in the judges scorecards specially when there is no clear winner in a round.

The scores courtesy of

the badlefthook.com

Nevada Athletic Commission Judge Robert Hoyle had Marquez leading after 10 rounds and but gave the final 2 rounds to Pacquiao for the Sarangani Congressman to level up and draw 114 - 114. Judge Dave Moretti on the other hand had Marquez leading after 7 rounds but gave Pacquiao four of the last five rounds for a 115 - 113 score in Pacquiao's favor. The third judge Glen Towbridge had Pacquiao leading all the way enroute to a 116 - 112 score. The result of the cards saw Pacquiao win via Majority decision. Imagine the three bouts, a draw, a split decision and a majority decision, thats' how close this trilogy has come to. Another Nevada device, the Compubox which counts down punches thrown, landed and other stuff had Pacquiao connecting 176 punches to Marquez's 138 with the Pacman connecting on 117 power punches to the Mexican's 100. Either way, the experts saw that Pacquiao was the aggressor and the one landing most of the punches thus the win.

Nevada's Compubox scores

The win was disappointing to a lot of Pacquiao fans. From the Pacman's last fight against Marquez, he has won convincingly against David Diaz, Oscar dela Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey, Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley. That was why while hearing Pacquiao train harder and his camp predicting a knock out, most of his fans were happy he won but were disappointed with the way he got the win. Bottomline, a win is a win and a lot of Americans who are not on the side of the Pacman where justifying the scores and why Pacquiao won, why can't we as Filipinos accept that move on. So what's next with the Pacman, we'll see.