Pacquiao vs. Marquez 4 - Validation vs. Confirmation!
By Robert Brown, Doghouse Boxing (Sept 26, 2012) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © Chris Farina / Top Rank)
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By Robert Brown, Doghouse Boxing. - On December 8 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas, Manny
Pacquaio and Juan Manuel Marquez will once again face off to determine
once and for all who the master of these boxing legends is.
Spanning
almost a decade these fights have been riddled with controversy,
vigorous debate combined with the smell of corruption.
The
three preceding fights between Pacquaio and Marquez have been amongst
the most debated in boxing history. With the first fight we had people
on each side of the fence arguing one point either way, but most people
were comfortable enough with the drawn result. With the second fight you
had Pacquaio and Marquez fans fiercely arguing that their side had won
the fight with a small group of neutral fans in the middle, perhaps
slightly leaning towards Marquez, however Pacquaio came out on top. In
the third fight there had seem to be in most people’s eyes finally a
conclusive result between the two with Marquez dominating with his
superior use of the ring forcing Pacquaio to follow him and constantly
nailing him with straight right hands over the top of Pacquaio’s
straight left hand and he was also able to land right uppercuts from a
distance because Pacquaio falls in after throwing punches. When the
fight ended and the first score card was read out, being so even, in
that split second I said to myself something along the lines of “oh my
god, they are going to give it to Pacquaio” and as the rest of the
scores were read out my worst fears were realized... Pacquaio had
miraculously come out with the majority decision victory. The effect was
so profound it prompted the topic R.I.P. boxing to be heading up
twitter for the next 24 hours and produced comments from hard core
boxing fans, casual fans, celebrities to people that didn’t even really
follow boxing.
In most polls over 70% of people had
Marquez the winner, since then we have had Pacquaio’s very much disputed
loss against Timothy Bradley, which created as much if not more debate
than the Marquez fight. Pacquiao's loss Bradley prompted investigations,
possible congressional inquiries and an even stronger stench of
possible corruption in the sport. All this combined with the
unsatisfactory PPV figures of Pacquaio / Bradley have lead Marquez and
Pacquaio back together again.
Marquez who after the third
fight had seemed certain to retire has been lured back for a chance of
validation to prove that he is as good if not better than Pacquaio and
that he won the preceding three fights. Pacquaio is out to dominate and
destroy the aging Mexican warrior to prove to himself and the general
public that he is the better fighter and that he did indeed with the
previous three fights by knocking Marquez out and adding an explanation
point to the ongoing saga between the two.
My personal
opinion is that Marquez has more to lose in this fight than Pacquaio and
perhaps shouldn’t have taken it because in reality this fight comes
down to which fighter is more past their prime, because I think we all
agree they are both well past it, Marquez is naturally slowing down with
age and Pacquaio only fights in 30 second to a minute bursts these days
and very rarely throws the 4 5 6 punch combinations that he used to.
Since the Antonio Margarito fight, Pacquiao seems to have lost the real
thirst, hunger and killer instinct. This has been demonstrated in recent
fights with him complaining about cramps, calves, hamstrings and quads,
offering excuses for his apparent recent lackluster performances.
Taking
all this into account I believe if Pacquaio performs badly in this
fight he will have more excuses to pull out of his kit bag than Marquez.
Even though Marquez is the much older fighter heading towards 40 years
of age, I believe his run of consistent performances will harm him in
this case, if he performs badly against Pacquaio where as if it’s the
other way around a raft, a veritable raft of excuses will come out, both
from fans and Pacquaio’s camp, excuses from he had cramps to he had an
injury going into the fight to Pacquaio’s just simply worn out from
fighting bigger men, some of these excuses may have merit but they do
not provide for justification.
It is my belief that even
if Marquez wins this fight he will not get the validation amongst the
broad spectrum of boxing fans that he truly deserves. If he loses that
will provide confirmation amongst the general and uneducated boxing fans
that Pacquaio was the better fighter and if Marquez wins they are just
going to say Pacquaio was past his prime, in essence this is a lose-lose
situation for Marquez apart from the pay packet.
Recently
Marquez has stated in an interview with Pacquaio on ESPN that he has to
do something different to win this fight, I don’t necessarily subscribe
to that theory. If Marquez discovers early in the fight that Pacquaio’s
obvious technical faults have not improved then he must follow the same
game plan except with a slight adjustment of an increase in output of
throwing more punches, because if Pacquaio once again falls in after
throwing straight left hands, stands still after throwing jabs and has
an inability to cut off the ring, Marquez with his superior command of
the ring and counter punching skills baring a major slowing down of
reflexes and another unjust decision should be victorious over Pacquaio.
People
should not make the mistake of looking at these fights as a
collective... fans should look at these fights as individual classics,
because unlike other rematches, these two have had long gaps between
fights and were at different stages of their careers. So it's unfair to
judge the two on a collective basis, but we all know that is not going
to happen. Although I will watch it, I believe there is no need for a
4th fight. Let’s hope both fighters give a great performance and their
careers are not remembered for this result.
For the record if the fight is scored like it should be without any controversy I pick Marquez by split decision.
In closing this comes down to validation for one vs. confirmation for the other.
E-mail questions and comments to Robert at: robbybrown82@hotmail.com
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