For 11 rounds, Juan Manuel Marquez handled Manny Pacquiao. He won the battles in close, he landed the harder jabs and he avoided many of Pacquiao’s power punches.
But Marquez didn’t win the May 8, 2004, showdown with Pacquiao. He was lucky to walk away with a draw and retain his WBA/IBF featherweight titles.
From the second round on, Marquez had been the better fighter. But that hadn’t been the case in Round 1.
Pacquiao dropped him three times in the first. And had Burt Clemens correctly given Pacquiao credit for three knockdowns, not two, Marquez would have come up short on the scorecards.
“After the fourth round, I was dominating the fight,” Marquez said. “Manny Pacquiao won only one or two rounds, three at the most.”
Marquez has never been known as a fast starter, but his performance in the first round against Pacquiao was unforeseeable. And if Marquez is to be believed now, he won’t start slowly when the two meet Saturday night (HBO pay-per-view at 9) for the second time in Las Vegas.
The rematch will have a different beginning because Marquez vows not a make the same mistake. Marquez’s mistake wasn’t of a physical nature. His left jab had zip, and his hard right hit its mark a couple of times.
Marquez made a mental error. He underestimated Pacquiao, who was fighting for only the third time at 126 pounds.
“I was pretty confident going into that fight. I was connecting well in the first round,” said Marquez, who is 48-3-1 with 35 knockouts. “I thought it was going to be an easy fight. But whoa! I got a surprise that it wasn’t.
“I’m going to put everything I have into this fight. From the very first round … I’m going to be alert. And obviously, I won’t be overconfident.”
