For
the record, I had Juan Manuel Marquez winning 115-113. As did many others, some had the
fight a draw and others had Manny Pacquiao winning by the same score. I found it
interesting that so many folks are labeling this a “robbery.” I guess there is
no such thing as a close fight anymore. It's either a correct decision in your
eyes or a mugging where the man you want doesn't get the verdict.
“You
tend to score those close rounds for your guy. I'm not the best scorer. I had
it 7-5 for Pacquiao,” said Bob Arum, who isn't exactly the most unbiased
observer. “HBO had it 8-4 for Pacquiao. A lot of the writers, Kevin [Iole] was
telling me he had it 6-6, a draw. All of those scores are acceptable because
you're dealing with rounds that were so close. Not only was this fight not
definitive, as between the two guys, very few rounds were definitive.”
Looking
at the official scorecards, it does seem to support Arum's point. Out of the 12
rounds, only six of them had a consensus where all three judges (Robert Hoyle,
Moretti and Trowbridge) had the same guy winning a particular round. It was not
an easy fight to judge but what outraged many fans is the seemingly wide margin
of victory on Trowbridge's card that had Pacquiao up 116-112. Ask yourself
this: of the two, who had a stronger argument that he won eight rounds?
What
I found interesting about his card was that unlike the other two judges,
Trowbridge gave Marquez the 12th inning, unlike his two colleagues that
scored it for Pacquiao, meaning he had it a five-point (yes, five) fight in
favor of Pacquiao going into that last stanza, while just about everyone else
in the arena and watching on HBO Pay-Per-View thought this fight was hanging in
the balance.
To put
it in perspective as to just how competitive this series has been, I think this
tweet said it all:
“How insane is this. Pac and JMM have
fought 36 rounds. The combined judges scores over all 3 fights? 1024 - 1017
SEVEN points over 36 rounds
As
for a fourth chapter of this rivalry, Arum said, “If the fighters are willing,
the promoter is willing. I mean, I was scared to death. They brought me into
this room pass the whole crowd of people- mostly Mexicans- who wanted to lynch
me. So the only way I'm going to get off the hook is to have them fight again.
You can laugh, man, but I gotta go to Mexico and
do fights.”
