MANILA, Philippines ? Two days after staging his last major show in Las Vegas, Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum defended the decision of the three judges who scored a majority decision win for Manny Pacquiao against Juan Manuel Marquez.
?The worst score was 7 (rounds) to five (rounds) for Pacquiao and the 8-4 rendered by HBO in-house judge Harold Lederman was fair,? Arum said from his Las Vegas home on Monday night.
Judge Robert Hoyle scored it 114-all, while Dave Moretti saw it 115-113 and Glenn Trowbridge had it 116-112, both for Pacquiao, scores that did not sit well with the highly-partisan crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Arum said ?the expectation was just too high? that even if Pacquiao really won a round, he was not given due credit for it.
?The people were expecting Manny to mop the floor with Marquez.?
But Marquez proved to be tougher than expected as he stood his ground, exchanging heavy blows at close range as well as connecting with the more telling blows in the 12-round world welterweight title fight that many didn’t predict will go the distance.
