Three is Not Enough.

Yesterday was the third fight of Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez and it ended in a controversial manner. I actually didn't watched the fight live in cable even though MP and I lived in a same city (General Santos City) and most of the people here watched the fight in their television sets or queued to the city gym to catch it live. In fact, I never watched the fight yet so I can't really comment on the fight itself. I'm not really a big fan of boxing though I'm proud to have a town mate whose an eight-time boxing champ and was hailed as the pound-for-pound king. On the other hand, it seemed MP wasn't in his usual boxing self yesterday. Flooding in the local and national news are the negative and mixed views of the people about the result and who should be the real winner. Fortunately, MP won the fight by majority decision but it seems like not all Filipinos are impressed with this win. Some were saying Marquez won the fight. Again, I can't pass my judgment on that simply for the fact that I hadn't seen it. However, reliable boxing analysts states that Marquez should have won the fight, MP was lethargic, MP's hand speed and power wasn't there, Marquez was much aggressive than Pacquiao, MP shouldn't be proud of his performance, some said MP himself wasn't much convinced that he won the fight, that he was already cramping up that's why he was a little bit slow in reacting towards Marquez' punches. Well, that's for them to say, they are the authority in boxing so maybe they're right, or maybe they could be wrong too, who knows? 

Marquez landing some punches on Pacquiao's face

The Mexicans who watched the fight were very dismayed by the judges' decision and they were booing MP and even harassing some Filipinos who watched the fight. I feel for my fellow Filipinos who just went to Las Vegas just to witness the anticipated fight of our people's champ MP, it wasn't their fault if the decision turned out to be in our favor and not with the Mexicans. On the other hand, Top Rank honcho Bob Arum told the media that a Pacquiao-Marquez IV would be possible on May 2012 so that the Mexicans won't kill him (they will if he won't work out on the possible fourth fight). 

Back here in the Philippines, the trending topic here was the controversial results of the Pacquiao-Marquez III and some where saying that we shouldn't be proud of MP's win because Marquez was obviously the better fighter in their third bout. I found it quite ironic that everyone suddenly becomes boxing analysts and experts (hehe) that expressed their views and opinions either positive or negative. I heard some saying we Filipinos should be ashamed of MP's victory cause the judges might be bought by money from a member of Team Pacquiao or even Arum paid them to make their decision in favor of MP. I don't know where these allegations come from there's a possibility that the judges committed some mistake in scoring the bout. Pacquiao is a great fighter so I think he might have fought decently and that these negative comments from some of our countrymen were just a sense of bitterness from the fact that Pacquiao didn't knocked Marquez down furthermore the shade of brilliance of Manny Pacquiao was not very visible. You know, we might be spoiled from watching MP beat the hell out of his previous opponents and that we were having so much expectations from him that he can shut down Marquez easily and make the Mexican eat his words.  

The flashes of brilliance

I think a fourth fight is a necessary so the question of who's the best fighter between Pacquiao and Marquez will finally be put to rest. But reports says that Marquez is hesitant on fighting Pacquiao again not because he's afraid of him but he was sure he won the third fight and that he was obviously upset and discouraged with the fight's outcome that a fourth one won't still settle the score because he believes no matter how better his performance is that Pacquiao, they will still declare Pacquaio as the winner (when Marquez went here in the Philippines, he wore a printed shirt with the words "Pacquiao robbed me twice" pointing out that he should have won that first fight which resulted into a draw and the second fight which was a split decision). One analyst even said that until Marquez went to his grave, he will always believe and declare that he is better than Pacquiao, that he's the real winner of the three fights. Maybe Marquez showed that he can still fight despite him gaining more weight to challenge Pacquiao in the welterweight division but I will always believe Pacquaio is the better fighter whether he really wins or lose the fight. His contributions to our nation is indispensable and he's our champ. By the way, he's a Congressman of our adjacent province (Sarangani). He might have committed mistakes but he surely does give pride to our country. Never mind the amount of money he earns from these fight, he deserves it and he even use his own purse to help his constituents. Again, back in boxing, the phrase "damned if you do, damned if you not" is really applicable. If Manny Pacquiao dominated Marquez  in that fight and score a convincing win, we Filipinos would be "very proud" to be Filipino because Pacquiao showed his Filipino pride and we would also brag that Filipinos are great athletes (I mean, we really have great athletes but we don't usually capitalize on these athletes in some international sporting competition like the Olympics were the athletes are really fighting for the flag and as we know, Olympics is the barometer of a nation's excellence in sports and Philippines had yet to win an Olympic gold medal even in boxing where we produced so many professional champions). Well, only God knows whose the real boxer between the two but kudos to Marquez, he really give Pacquiao a run for his money. And for Manny Pacquaio, Sir, you really need to sort out your team, it's getting a bit crowded and they bring distractions, next time you have an upcoming fight, focus on your training as what you used before, I've noticed you've gotten so many distractions this days and I don't wanna enumerate them. Your a great fighter and you'll undoubtedly be a boxing hall of famer but until then, show us the Manny Pacquiao we used to watch fighting relentlessly with the hand speed and power punches. Your still my idol and you will forever be our people's champ. But, a fourth bout will not be a bad idea..just saying. Well, congratulations for the win Cong. Manny Pacquiao!! 

"I clearly won this fight"-Pacquiao

*****

 The agony of  defeat in Marquez' face