LAS VEGAS–In a fight in which Pinoy Idol Manny Pacquiao was a 10-1 betting favorite and in which he was supposed to thrash and dominate 38-year-old Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez, the bookmakers and the so-called experts (including yours foolishly) were made to look like clowns. Marquez, the Hall Of Fame fighter who was thoroughly outpointed by Floyd “Money” Mayweather so easily, was said to be easy work for Megamanny in this, their third scheduled 12-rounder. But Marquez and brilliant trainer Nacho Beristain ignored the naysayers and crafted a brilliant figh plan in which I thought Juan Ma should’ve come away the winner on the scorecards. I scored it 114-113 for Pacquiao’s archrivl. But guess what? In some sloppy scoring by three Nevada judges, Pacman won a majority decison which stunned most of the fans in the sold out MGM Grand Garden Arena, particulaly the Mexican partisans. I guess now, instead of Mayweather-Pacquiao, we’ll be looking at Chapter 4 for these two great little fighters next. One judge called it a 114-114 draw. The second favored Pacquiao 115-113 and the third had the Filipino ahead, 116-112. As Pacquiao spoke to HBO’s Max Kellerman in the ring following the no knockdown bout, the crowd completely drowned out the audio with their heavy booing and catcalling. Pacquiao, who suffered a minor cut over the right eye, had an inconsistent effort which was epitomized by a point in the final round when his mouthpiece popped out of his mouth and fell to the canvas.
