By scores of 116-112, 115-113, and 114-114, Manny ?Pacman? Pacquiao 54-3-2 (38 KO?s) of General Santos City, Philippines would once again be awarded the decision in a close bout over Juan Manuel ?Dinamita? Marquez 53-6-1 (39 KO?s) of Mexico City, Mexico at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada to retain his WBO welterweight title. And even though it appeared that the Mexican warrior would yet again land the visibly more effective shots over the course of twelve rounds, as he had done in their previous encounters, to have been awarded the win over the Filipino icon in this their third meeting, victory would yet again elude Marquez, who would once more come up short on the scorecards in a majority decision loss. This drew the ire of the frustrated Juan Manuel, who immediately seeking refuge in the dressing room upon the rendering of another disappointing verdict, flatly stated, ?this is the second robbery,? and, ?I connected with the better punches.? Marquez? Hall of Fame trainer, ?Nacho? Beristain, would echo these very sentiments stating, ?this is a robbery of the utmost.? In action that was quite reminiscent of their previous battles, although less consistent with pockets of inactivity here and there, no knockdowns were suffered by either man. And despite the fact that the ?Pacman? has steadily improved since his last outing against Mexican arch rival Marquez, and that the pound-for-pound king would in this instance hand Marquez a most decisive defeat as the heavy favorite, this would not be the case at all. For not only would the style of Juan Manuel once again prove to be totally competitive, but ?Dinamita? Marquez would elude any significant shots by Pacquiao, utilizing excellent head movement and footwork, while delivering the more solid blows to in my view win the majority of rounds which should have garnered the Mexican warrior the victory. Contrary to my opinion and that of others, Pacquiao, who could faintly be heard amongst the cascade of boo?s that would rain almost endlessly during his post fight comments would state, ?it?s very clear I won the fight.? And even though it was mainly a Mexican contingent voicing their displeasure at the moment the final verdict was rendered, there are already polls out indicating that a significant majority of observers outside the arena also thought that Marquez had did enough to win. Manny looked to be at his least effective in this confrontation between himself and Juan Manuel, perhaps ironically due to the Filipino? marked improvement. For example, Manny doesn?t lunge into his shots or over reach as he once did, resulting in better balance and less risky behavior exhibited on his part. Consequently, the Filipino fighter is quite less reckless than he has been in past bouts with Marquez, which is precisely why the challenging Mexican fighter was able to seemingly be in better control this time out, as Pacquiao is more effective against Juan Manuel when he is less settled, in which instance Manny is far less predictable and therefore much more effective in getting to Marquez to land the big shots, which have previously proven to be of significance as it relates to the judges final scorecard tallies. Not the case in this outing, as Marquez would avoid significant damage while for the most part getting the better Manny in the exchanges, landing a variety of shots in a excellent display of timing and precision counter punching.
