An Inconvenient Fight

END OF THE LINE A dazed and confused Pacquiao

Two days before pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao and his Mexican archrival Juan Manuel Marquez could slug it out in the ring for the third time in their much-anticipated trilogy, I already have my sights on the fighting congressman, scoring a convincing technical knockout (TKO) over El Dinamita in the earlier rounds. So convinced I was that I even forecasted on social media a beating on Marquez by relying solely on his lopsided defeat in his first welterweight bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. a couple of years ago; self-assured that as soon as the fight is over, Marquez had had enough of the Pacman.

“First, it was a draw; second, it was a split; the third one, however, was a no contest. We should have seen this coming. When Floyd Mayweather Jr. pummeled Juan Manuel Marquez like some nail to a coffin in 2009, we should have prepared ourselves what could possible happen to Marquez the moment he steps into the ring with Pacquiao for the third time on a welterweight course. Instead, we pampered him to a fault, giving him too much credit by highlighting his exploits of his previous two fights with Pacquiao as if he was indeed robbed, without looking into Pacquiao’s own exploits immediately after that controversial split, which was quite spectacular (de la Hoya, Cotto, Margarito, to name a few). Marquez simply underestimated Pacquiao, and the fault is entirely his own,” I wrote over Facebook two days prior to the fight.

But after Saturday’s bout (Sunday morning in the Philippines), my take, after all, was a gross miscalculation. It was the other way around. It was Manny who disastrously underestimated Marquez, causing him almost to spill over as the fight went on to a 12-round barn burn. Marquez’s counterpunching skills proved to be too much against the seemingly invincible Pacquiao, as it continued to frustrate the champion in a way even Manny isn’t prepared to accept. Although the scorecards had repeatedly indicated Pacquiao’s superiority by landing 176 punches against Marquez’s 138, and delivering that much-touted power punch with 117 as against Dinamita’s 100, and eventually winning a hotly-contested majority decision, the fight, however, was clearly in Marquez’s hands as he methodically connected what seemed to be the more emphatic shot we normally associate it with Pacquiao.

Yet despite Manny’s uneasy performance, the judges gave him the benefit of the doubt with a 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112 score. But it was a bittersweet victory for him. He seemed shell-shocked at the end of the fight, not knowing what to say except admit that he did clearly win. He was even more enigmatic immediately after the last round when he bowed his head on his way to his corner while his opponent raised its hand and smiled, knowing that perhaps he again made a casualty in the ring at the expense of the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Pacquiao stepped into the ring ablaze like a predator with his stampeding “Eye of the Tiger” arrival, but he stepped down of it unfortunately like a prey, reduced almost to tears, as he was greeted with boos and bottles angrily protesting his controversial win.

Marquez was exhausted and annoyed, just like the rest of us. And because of his frustration he immediately shifted into a retirement mode, but still asking himself the same question he probably contemplated even before fighting Pacquiao for the third time: What must he do to convince the judges that he clearly won the fight? The answer to that question lies not too long ago--- last Saturday, when he scared the living daylights out of the Pacquiao myth and almost came out with the belt. It was, by far, the closest thing to victory Marquez could muster in his bid to outlast and outwit Pacman since 2004 when they first met. Marquez landed the heavier blows last Saturday, so heavy that until now Pacquiao fans are still devastated even when the fight is over.

Pacquiao simply can’t position himself in front of Marquez in this last outing. The reckless, dominant Pacquiao was nowhere near his usual fighting form, preferring to dodge surreptitiously after releasing his left hand, and offered no alternative to Marquez’s accurate and savage counterpunching. Although retaining much of his usual pedigree of speed and power, Marquez’s resiliency, however, again proved to be a more serious threat than we, perhaps he too, could possibly imagine. Which really makes you wonder if and when Mayweather decides to soften his demands and fight Pacquiao right now, are we in for another 12 rounds of Pacquiao fits? Like Marquez, Mayweather too is a counterpunching virtuoso, only this time Pacquiao might be in for a stronger, faster and more accurate counterpunching than that he received last Saturday.

TEST OF CHARACTER A rare toast for Marquez

Part of the frustration really was that we were so caught up with Pacquiao, hook, line and sinker, and that when he wasn’t able to return the favor by letting us catch the big fish in Juan Manuel Marquez, we somehow felt betrayed. We have already seen the warnings out of his previous two fights with the Mexican hero, and still we refused to believe that it might somehow cast a dark shadow in their third war, that Marquez might quite possibly dictate the tempo like he did at various times in their previous fights. And he did, in a stunning and sensational fashion at that. Like history repeating itself. What Pacquiao did to Marco Antonio Barrera at the Alamo in 2003, Marquez was able to duplicate it, but unlike Pacquiao’s physical beating of Barrera, Marquez overwhelmed Pacquiao psychologically in the ring and even after it. Pacquiao was never the same a fighter after last Saturday’s affair, it was probably his only victory to date, notwithstanding his 15 straight title fight wins, with a tinge of sadness hovering on his face.

Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, always the businessman, and probably sensing the implication of the controversial decision, immediately took steps and assured the fans that there will be a fourth fight between the two fighters. But as to how good that fight would fare compared to those three contested ones remains to be seen. Marquez might be too old then, a year remove from the one we terribly witnessed the other night for Pacquiao. His frustration, disgust, and the presence of another “robbery” though might work at a disadvantage on his part should a fourth fight would come knocking at his door. "It's hard when you're fighting your rival and the three judges, too," Marquez said after the fight. Perhaps a retirement would do some sort of justice to Marquez knowing that, like Prometheus, he somehow stole the fire off Pacquiao in 12 career-defining rounds.

Like many Filipinos, I too, was surprised at how fast Pacquiao descended into that indefensible, seemingly mediocre performance he displayed in front of a sellout crowd at the MGM Grand Arena. You could almost feel that as soon as the fight dragged on, he was actually fighting all his own, not following anymore the plan engineered by no less than his celebrated coach, Freddie Roach. In fact, Roach did not mince words when he said that Marquez deserves a rematch, thus giving credit to the Mexican pugilist for giving Pacquiao all he could handle. It was a fight that clearly tested Pacquiao and Roach, probably the best one-two punch combination in boxing, a well-oiled machine that could easily grind every opponent in the ring, to a level of extreme pressure and wake up calls.

Though Manny is still up there, still the toast of the boxing world, but his air of invincibility, his ferocious appetite for destruction and his extensive hold over every available bet in the ring was somehow damaged at the expense of that controversial and oftentimes puzzling fight. And even Manny himself, who, at this point, still maintains a flaccid view over his near meltdown in the ring the other night, is at a loss for words.  "He was ready for my punches," he said. "I thought I blocked a lot of his punches." And this was Pacquiao Saturday night at Las Vegas, probably the feared prizefighter in the world but fighting like a regular boxer, fighting like Marquez was a completely new exploit inside the ropes, unaware of his boxing style, and thinking that he might have blocked a lot of his punches instead of imposing it on him.

But the judges who adjudged this fight ruled it in keeping with the conventional decision. Had Marquez knocked Pacquiao down, it would have been a relief. That because of Pacquiao’s seemingly lousy performance, you’d wish he had been defeated by a sizeable margin or a devastating punch on his way to the canvass. Pacquiao’s belt, however, saved him from utter mediocrity. It saved him from a lot of things, from his rumored disagreement with Alex Ariza, his Strength and Conditioning Coach, from his alleged marital problems with his wife Jinkee, from his self-confessed cramps midway through the 4th round, from Marquez's deliberate stepping on his feet, and finally from Marquez’s inability to close him out at the latter stages in the game. The inconvenience of the whole thing was so palpable that as soon as the fight was over and almost half of the boxing world was waiting for Michael Buffer to announce the decision, silence seemed like an eternity.

Now that the decision is over, and the damage done, we might as well leave the verdict at that, and accept his victory like it used to be. The fight will probably linger on for a long time not only to his fans and critics alike but more so to Manny as well. By and large, he will be adjudged and assessed from now on with his November 12, 2011 bout with Juan Manuel Marquez. The die has been cast fittingly to his next possible opponent come May of 2012, as has been already publicized in the press, to an opponent who mercilessly broke down Marquez to a point of incompetence and ignominy. But by that time, though, perhaps the scare is not as unbearable anymore as it did a few days ago.