The Pacquiao/Marquez Scoring Controversy

By Dave “Large” Larzelere
The split decision victory awarded to Manny Pacquiao by the judges in his fight Saturday night with Juan Manuel Marquez left a bitter taste in many people’s mouths, most notably Marquez and his handlers. The judges’ scorecards read 115-112 for Marquez, and 115-112 and 114-113 for Pacquiao, which meant that Marquez lost by the narrowest margin possible, a single point on a single scorecard.
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Myself, I had the fight scored 114-113 for Pacquiao. To my eyes, it was a draw on rounds and the margin of victory came down to the fact that Pacquiao knocked Marquez down in the third round and earned an extra point. The outrage of Marquez and his people is understandable but excessive, and their behavior in the ugly post-fight press conference was undignified. To insinuate that a fight as close (and as great) as that one was crookedly judged and that it was obvious that Juan Manuel won is preposterous. It was anything but obvious who won that fight. The bout was VERY close, and it must be tremendously painful to lose by such a margin. But crying about it in such dramatic fashion seems even more painful to me.
It’s no consolation to Marquez, clearly, but the fact of the matter is that when a fight is won by one point on one scorecard, it’s effectively a draw. There are very good arguments to say that either man won the fight, and that’s all it comes down to in the end, an argument, one in which the judges have the most important, but by no means final, word. The ultimate irony of boxing, the manliest and most decisive of sports, is that when no knockout is recorded it ends with the subjective assessment of three arbitrarily chosen delegates. But that’s the concession we make with civilization, because the only other alternative is a fight to the death.
Hopefully, this controversy will blow over and the main result will be a third Marquez/Pacquiao fight. Immediately afterwards, as had been expected, Pac Man’s promoter Bob Arum announced a June 28th bout for his fighter with lightweight title-holder David Diaz. But already there are rumors that the uproar over the Marquez decision will change those plans. Money, as it always is, seems to be the x factor, although another thing that remains unclear is what weight a third fight would be contested at. Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, said definitively on Saturday night that Manny would never fight again at 130 and that if Marquez wants another fight it would have to be at 135, a move that most likely would favor the bigger, stronger Pac Man.
(Check out my full recap of the fight over at No Mas)↵