Pacquiao didn’t win this fight

By David Blood

So what went wrong with Manny Pacquiao in his third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas last night?

Trainer Freddie Roach had predicted a 6th round KO for the champ but he has also indicated earlier in the week that Marquez was the only fighter to get inside the Pacman’s head.

In their first encounter Pacquiao dropped Marquez three times in the first round but failed to knock him out in the next eleven, then in the second fight, when Marquez was dominating proceedings , a blitz from Manny put him down in round six.

This fight was different from the get-go. Pacquiao never showed any rhythm or dominance until round nine and then only for a brief few seconds.

I think that the Pacman considered Marquez a pushover at 38-years-of-age and just like Ali said to Frazier in round seven of the Thrilla in Manila when Frazier was beating the crap out of him, “They told me Joe Frazier was washed up” to which Smokin’ Joe replied: “They lied”.

Manny hadn’t trained hard enough for this fight, by his own admission, and never looked sharp. He couldn’t find his range, he allowed Marquez to hit him far too easily and he appeared to have no answer to the counter punching of his older opponent.

A fight that should have been a breeze for the Pacman turned into 12 rounds of frustration as he failed to make any impression on Marquez and began to throw himself at Marquez instead of beating him with his natural hand speed.

His corner should have given him better advice, or if they did, he should have listened better as he lost more rounds than he won and I had Marquez ahead by at least two points but the judges saw in differently 114 – 114, 115 – 113, 116 – 112 for Pacquiao.
Did they score it for another re-match or so as not to jeopardise a possible fight with Floyd Mayweather  next year. I guess we will never know.  –David Blood SportsCentral

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