Roughly 48 hours after Manny Pacquiao’s second controversial win over Juan Manuel Marquez and being soundly booed by fans in attendance, advisors for the Filipino champion are split on whether to take up promoter Bob Arum’s offer for a fourth bout in May 2012.
Pacquiao was awarded a majority decision (114-114, 115-113, 116-112) in a bout that ringside observers overwhelmingly scored for Marquez. Pacquiao appeared unconfident for most of the bout and had his offense rendered inept by Marquez’s counterpunching. Alex Ariza, Pacquiao’s outspoken strength and conditioning coach, blamed the performance on leg cramps Pacquiao sustained from not following his training regimen.
“[He] wants another one,” Ariza told The Manila Standard Today. “We need to go back to the basics again. We have to get back to what we did in the days we were successful and we didn’t have any leg problems and things like that… He was not doing it my way at all… [Pacquiao’s body] looked good but his body didn’t cooperate with him again last night. His balance was off, he looked very ordinary, nothing special. He was exposed.”
Pacquiao advisor Michael Koncz disagrees that it was bad training habits that hampered his fighter. He believes a fourth fight would result in another frustrating, difficult fight where Pacquiao looks bad.
“I don’t think fans will want to pay to watch another Pacquiao-Marquez fight. What for?” Koncz told The Philippine Star. “It’ll be as close as the first three fights and they’ll be debating forever on who deserved the win. Honestly, we wouldn’t have taken this fight against Marquez if the money wasn’t too good.”
At press time, neither Manny Pacquiao nor Juan Manuel Marquez have publicly affirmed their willingness for a fourth fight.
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It’s funny to note this is the second fight in a row where Pacquiao has supposedly suffered from leg cramps. What really happened was a “mind cramp” courtesy of Juan Manuel Marquez, who out-thought and out-fought Pacquiao on Saturday night. There is indeed no need for a fourth fight; the fact that Pacquiao got a majority decision, with an atrocious score of 116-112 no less, shows that he’ll get the benefit of the doubt in every competitive round he has with Marquez. Regarding boxing scoring criteria, there’s a reason the phrase is “effective aggression” and not “aggression.” You shouldn’t be rewarded by judges because you’re coming forward into counters. And let’s not even discuss the other factors judges are supposed to look at as well (ring generalship, defense and clean punching).
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 