Two days after the majority win of Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines against Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico, fans and boxing aficionados are still exchanging comments and counter-comments, claims and counter-claims in various tv interviews, news headlines and social networking media. Each group claimed that their idol had won the fight.
In spite of this controversy which headlined most of the sports pages off and on-line, I have not seen the fight. Nonetheless, I am updated on what's happening. Although Pacquiao won, some ordinary Filipinos and sports commentaries voiced out their disgust on the poor performance of their countryman Pacquiao in this bout. I don't blame them because the People's Champ's team had conditioned the Filipinos that Pacquiao would knock out Marquez the latest in the 6th round. They became disappointed when Marquez clung until the 12th round. However, most Filipinos have rejoiced for the win.
I understood the reaction of the Mexicans. Marquez had given many blows to Manny's face and they viewed that they were just enough to declare him the winner.
By the cards of the 3 judges, it was clear that the fight was indeed very close. These judges were professional and with integrity. They could not be persuaded with verbal abuse, loud cheering and booing to change their decision. They have seen many fights and they knew who was their winner.
I have observed that the champion (Pacquiao in this case) has an advantage over the challenger in terms of scoring. No matter how hard the challenger's punches, he could not be declared a winner if he did not knock out the champion. Maybe, this was the case in this fight.
Meanwhile, the magnificent "foot work" of Juan Manuel Marquez below was circulating in the internet.
Meanwhile, the magnificent "foot work" of Juan Manuel Marquez below was circulating in the internet.
