Pacquiao vs Marquez quintology inevitable

MANILA, Philippines - Whether Juan Manuel Marquez knocked out Manny Pacquiao with a lucky or perfect punch in their fourth encounter last December is an unresolved issue that could lead to a quintology involving the two fighters in September in Macau or Singapore or Mexico where the tax bite isn’t as stinging as in Las Vegas.

Marquez described the counter right hand that brought down Pacquiao as “the perfect punch.” But revealing photographs of the connection showed Marquez sliding away from Pacquiao, not even in his line of sight, with the right hand extended in what seemed to be an instinctive reaction to a lunging opponent. 

The two most telling photographs were taken by Robert Beck for Sports Illustrated and Steve Marcus for Reuters. Beck’s shot was extremely graphic with Marquez shown stepping on Pacquiao’s right foot and his right glove planted smack on the Filipino’s face. The picture showed Pacquiao on his toes with both heels off the canvas, depicting a forward movement and Marquez slipping out. Pacquiao looked like he walked straight into Marquez’s glove. In Marcus’ photograph which appeared to be taken a split second after Beck clicked, Pacquiao’s eyes were closed and his hair strewn upright, beads of perspiration in the air, to indicate impact of the punch. Marquez was snapped peering at his prey from the corner of his eyes, his body twisted to add power to the blow.

The pictures illustrated how Marquez landed the perfect or lucky punch. Pacquiao lurched forward after the blow and collapsed face first, with both hands on his stomach as if to break the fall.  His feet were stretched out close together. Referee Kenny Bayless didn’t bother to count as Pacquiao went down out cold and lay motionless for a few minutes. The end came at 2:59 of the sixth round. 

Before the fateful blow, Pacquiao was on the attack and Marquez seemed to be on the way out. The Mexican had spat out his mouthpiece because he couldn’t breathe from his busted nose. His face was battered, bruised and bloodied. When the 10-second clapper sounded, Pacquiao moved in for the kill instead of backing off to wait for another round. That was his fatal mistake. Pacquiao sensed the Mexican was ready to go and didn’t want to hang around for another stanza to close it out. So he pushed forward, forgetting Marquez’s counter right hand had been his favorite weapon in the previous 41 rounds they’d battled. Marquez’s head was probably too buzzed for him to think about a counterattack, with the round about to end, and as Pacquiao charged in, he threw a punch from nowhere, almost by instinct – without even looking. It was the punch that, as Boxing News editor Tris Dixon wrote, was “delivered from the gates of hell and containing the emotion of three heart-breaking decisions, the passion of an enormous Latino boxing community and one man’s textbook violence… (it) would’ve knocked down a wall of Pacquiao’s secure compound in the Philippines.”

Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated said “Pacquiao was winning the sixth round before Marquez, his legs wobbly, his nose bleeding, connected with the right hand, sending Pacquiao down and providing the first undisputed victory in this epic rivalry.” 

Marquez’s power was incredible and there was suspicion that his conditioning coach Angel Heredia, a known steroid dealer, had used hard-to-detect performance enhancing drugs to boost his sock. Marquez weighed in at 143 and Pacquiao, 147, but seemed bigger, bulkier and stronger. When the fight began, Pacquiao was at 151 and Marquez 148. Michael Rosenthal of The Ring Magazine wrote, “The steroid speculation? It’s understandable given his physique and the age in which we live, when fitness gurus are often able to stay a step ahead of the testing process.”

Rosenthal praised Pacquiao despite the loss. “Pacquiao was competing at the highest level when the end came,” he said. “He fought with a spirit we hadn’t seen in recent fights, as if he were determined to do to Marquez what the Mexican ultimately did to him. He tried to do something great. And to do that, he had to take risks which in this case, backfired. He was caught in a moment of recklessness.”

In their four fights, Pacquiao has decked Marquez five times but never knocked him out while the Mexican has floored the Filipino twice, once for good. They’ve fought 42 rounds. Pacquiao has won twice, Marquez once and they drew once. To settle the issue of superiority, their duel must extend to a fifth fight. When and where it will happen is still up in the air but a quintology is inevitable.