MORALES: This time, Marquez was robbed

Follow up on last Saturday’s fight
By Robert Morales, Boxing Columnist
Posted: 11/18/2011 09:43:28 PM PST
Updated: 11/18/2011 11:40:24 PM PST

Juan Manuel Marquez had just frustrated Manny Pacquiao over 12 rounds this past Saturday at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Instead of celebrating a victory he deserved, he had to address the media as the majority-decision loser courtesy of three judges who apparently were either caught up in this love affair boxing has with Pacquiao, or simply don't know how to score a fight.

We're not going to suggest the judges might have been paid off because we don't think Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, is that foolish.
While at the dais at the post-fight news conference, Marquez said he was happy with his performance and that he didn't know what else he had to do to "change the minds of the judges."

The 38-year-old phenom from Mexico City then came up with an anecdote that spoke volumes about what had taken place in front of 16,383.
"Not only did we beat him in the ring, we beat him in the audience," Marquez said. "There were more Mexicans in the crowd than Filipinos."
Well, it's doubtful there were more Mexicans than Filipinos because any time Pacquiao fights Filipinos almost always out-number everyone else. It probably seemed there were more Mexicans because they had much more to cheer about.

If Pacquiao was doing as well as he usually does, the noise inside the MGM Grand Garden would have been deafening because the great Filipino fans are louder than anyone.

There were three Filipino reporters sitting in the area on press row. One of them looked over before the 12th round and said he had Marquez ahead 7-4 in rounds.

As the official scorecards were read a few minutes later and Pacquiao was announced the winner, all three of them looked at each other and then over at this reporter as if to suggest they were shocked at the result.
Veterans such as Tim Smith of the New York Daily News and Ron Borges of the Boston Herald had Marquez winning by the respective scores of 116-112 and 117-112. Both expressed absolute disgust at the decision.

This newspaper scored it 116-112 for Marquez. Other reporters said they had the same score and countless others - at least 10 - had Marquez winning 115-113. Two others had the bout even, but not one reporter queried said he had Pacquiao winning; that's not to say there weren't any, but if there were they were few and far between.

A Filipino acquaintance posted the punch stats on Facebook. They have Pacquiao throwing and landing more punches. If this had been an amateur bout, where any little touch of an opponent's head scores, that would mean something.

But this is professional boxing and the person who does the most damage in a given round is supposed to win that round. He doesn't have to throw and land more, he just has to put more hurt on his opponent.

Pacquiao was swinging and missing all night. Even when he did land, he was so out of sync because of Marquez's wonderful boxing that he didn't land with authority. Even Pacquiao's trainer - Freddie Roach - admitted afterward Pacquiao didn't land anything of tremendous significance.

"Manny hit him some good shots, but nothing great," said Roach, who said he thought his man pulled out the victory; if he says anything else, he may not be Pacquiao's trainer for his next fight.

Marquez landed many more crisp, clean, damaging punches.

Another galling aspect of all this was when Arum had the temerity to tell everyone in the aftermath that HBO's unofficial scorekeeper, Harold Lederman, had Pacquiao winning the fight.

First of all, Lederman can't score a fight better than everyone else just because he works for HBO, and he has come up with some real stinker scorecards over the years.

Secondly, don't think the HBO announcing team - which includes Lederman in a roundabout way - doesn't have an agenda. They know that if Pacquiao loses to Marquez the chance of a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight getting made suffers.

Even if it is made, it is hurt by a Pacquiao loss.

Since that fight would break all monetary records - making the rich even richer - a Pacquiao loss, or even the hint of one, is a blow to HBO, Pacquiao, Arum, et al.

In other words, even if the judges had scored the fight the right way for Marquez, HBO could always claim Pacquiao really won so as to minimize the damage.

It's not Pacquaio's fault. Had he been scored the loser, he likely would have been gracious in defeat because he is a good dude.

But it is the opinion here that Pacquiao lost, and rather handily.
And that's coming from someone who had Pacquiao winning their second fight by two points when probably half the reporters on hand had Marquez winning that 2008 bout.

It's just a crying shame Marquez last Saturday was robbed of a victory over the man who came in as boxing's top pound-for-pound fighter.
By the way, super lightweight champion Amir Khan was seated at press row. He is a friend of Pacquiao's and is also trained by Roach. Khan's score? Marquez 115-113.

The replay will be shown tonight on HBO along with the middleweight title fight between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Peter Manfredo Jr. from Houston. If you want to get a fair assessment of Pacquiao-Marquez, turn down the volume.