LAS VEGAS – Timber!
After the third fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez ended in controversy 13 months ago, promoter Bob Arum said he was determined to get a clear-cut winner from this hotly contested series that began in 2004.
Arum got his wish on Saturday, although at the expense of his fighter, Pacquiao. It came at 2:59 of the sixth round when a bloody Marquez landed a counter right hand to the chin of Pacquiao, who fell face-first through the lower rope onto the apron. He did not get up and Marquez had the knockout victory he figured he needed to have in front of 16,348 at MGM Grand.
It was Marquez’s second knockdown of the fight. He also dropped Pacquiao with a counter overhand right in the third round. They were the first knockdowns for Marquez in the four fights.
There was no major belt on the line, but Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KOs) probably couldn’t care less as he earned his first win against Pacquiao (54-5-2) and is now 1-2-1 against the Filipino icon.
“I knew in the last three rounds Manny was going for the knockout,” said Mexico’s Marquez, who was bleeding from the nose and perhaps from his mouth. “I knew I could have been knocked out at any time. I also knew when I knocked him down earlier, I could knock him out.
“I threw the perfect punch.”
A punch Pacquiao said he never saw coming. That it came in a round Pacquiao seemed to be winning and after the fifth round, during which Pacquiao Advertisement
had decked Marquez, made it all the more stunning.
“I got hit by a punch I didn’t see,” said Pacquiao, who was leading by one point on all three scorecards at the time.
Regarding the third-round knockdown he absorbed, Pacquiao said, “It was a good shot, but I was able to come back.”
After Pacquaio went down face-first, it was obvious he was not going to get up, as he was knocked cold. His wife, Jinkee, appeared like she was trying to get onto the ring apron. Pacquiao’s strength trainer, Alex Ariza, revived Pacquiao with the help of a cold towel on his head.
“Manny came back, he was in charge,” said Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach. “He just got a little careless. He was hurting Marquez.”
Will there be a fifth fight?
“Why not?” Arum said. “Have you seen a more exciting fight in years?”
Pacquiao also would like a fifth go-round.
“Why not?” he said, “if the promoters can make it.”
The first round was nothing more than a feel-round round, with neither fighter landing much of anything; Pacquiao was the aggressor, however.
Both fighters were busier in the second round. Marquez landed a couple of nice left hooks, and Pacquiao landed a couple of crisp left crosses.
Then in the third round Marquez found an opening midway through and flattened Pacquiao with an overhand right to the head. Marquez had earlier in the round landed a couple of hard body shots.
The fourth round was much closer, but Marquez landed two rights to the head at the end. Then Pacquiao dropped Marquez in the fifth with a left cross. The crowd was going wild for both ring warriors, but Pacquiao beat the daylights out of Marquez the rest of the round.
Then came the fateful sixth round, one that left reporters, publicists and fans alike shaking their heads in disbelief. It’s not too often a superstar goes down face-first the way Pacquiao did.
