Marquez halts Pacquiao in instant classic

Marquez halts Pacquiao in instant classic
Mark E. Ortega
Martinez News-Gazette
December 10, 2012

LAS VEGAS--Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the unbelievable run of future boxing Hall of Famer Manny Pacquiao came to a halt, as a devastating right hand from the Filipino Congressman's greatest rival, Juan Manuel Marquez, knocked him unconscious. The end came with one second left in the 6th round and was a shocking end considering the first three fights between the two went the distance.

The fight far exceeded the buzz that was generated beforehand--many boxing scribes had figured the bout would go much like the third one had--a tactical affair with a bit of action sprinkled throughout. Though both fighters were saying before the fight they were gunning for knockouts, many chalked that up to the kind of talk necessary to sell the pay-per-view purchasing public.



From the opening bell, it was clear it was not just talk.

Pacquiao sprinted out of his corner more determined to inflict damage than he had in many of his recent bouts, including in a questionable decision loss to Timothy Bradley in June as well as a questionable decision win over Marquez the previous November.

Marquez too was more aggressive, opening up more than the counter punching genius usually does. Both landed solid power shots in the opening stanzas that had each guy hurt, but something unpredictable would occur in the 3rd round.

Marquez landed a right hand, one similar to the ones he had landed in 36 previous rounds against Pacquiao, but this time it sent the Filipino icon onto the seat of his pants.

Pacquiao hadn't been knocked down in a out a decade, and for that knockdown to be produced by a guy who won his first world title at 126 pounds was something to behold considering the two were fighting under the welterweight limit of 147 on Saturday.

Pacquiao climbed off the canvas and didn't seem too shaken considering the perfection to which the punch landed. The following round, Pacquiao had Marquez on his heels, then in the 5th equaled things by scoring a knockdown when Marquez's glove touched the canvas following a hard shot.

That 5th round may rank as one of the better ones in elite boxing history. Here, two of unarguably the sport's best fighters of the last decade traded heavy leather in a round that saw more swings than an over anxious elementary aged kid at recess.

At the end of that round, it looked as though Pacquiao had swung momentum in his favor, and he controlled the 6th round for about two minutes and fifty seconds. But what happened in the last ten seconds would alter history.

The clank of the sticks came to indicate ten seconds remained in the round. At that point, Pacquiao pressed to land a few more hard blows before the final ding. Instead, Marquez stepped back and landed the most perfect right hand that he's landed in his nearly 20-year career. The result was Pacquiao lying face down on the mat, leaving no necessity for referee Kenny Bayless to issue a count before calling the bout over.

While Marquez celebrated, Pacquiao continued to lie face down until smelling salts were introduced. Considering Pacquiao is one of two dominant fighters of the last ten years (the other being Floyd Mayweather Jr.), it was as unlikely a scenario as you would have expected.

Afterwards, a cloud of doubt hungover the bout as Marquez, 39 years old, showed his body to be in a chiseled shape it had never reached before. The inclusion of incriminated performance enhancing drug handler Memo Heredia in his camp raised the suspicion that Marquez achieved that shape without legal means, though no outside proof exists.

In the coming days, weeks, and months, the victory will be tainted unless Marquez produced without a shadow of a doubt he was clean. With today's murky boxing testing, even if Marquez is not found guilty he will be considered far from innocent to the sport's biggest skeptics.

Marquez won't mind. He'll celebrate the win he's been after for almost ten years the same way his Mexican people celebrated in the lobby of the MGM for more than an hour afterwards. It took four fights for him to earn a decisive victory over Pacquiao, but the completeness of it has put him in the discussion for one of Mexico's best all-time.

Nobody who saw the fight will soon forget it, and the YouTube hits will continue to pile up for as many years as that medium exists.