When Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquaio meet tonight for the fourth time (HBO pay-per-view 9 p.m. ET) in their careers it will close a fantastic chapter in boxing history.
Pacquiao vs Marquez: Fight video of first meeting
Video of the first time that Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez stepped into the ring to face each other.
Jeff Bottari
The first time the two men met set a fantastic standard for the rest of the rivalry. Pacquiao came out guns blazing an caught Marquez cold in the first round, dropping him three times in the opening frame. Marquez was able to survive the round, spend the second round recovering and then seemed to take the fight over.
It was fantastic drama in the ring as the whirlwind that was young Pacquiao couldn’t put Marquez away early and then didn’t quite have the technical boxing chops to hang with Marquez the rest of the fight as the Mexican star picked away with thudding countershots.
The official cards read 115-110 Pacquiao, 115-110 Marquez, and 113-113 to make the fight a split draw. While the scoring was bound to be controversial either way, the judge who turned in the 113-113 card scored the first round 10-7, rather than the correct 10-6. A standard round would be scored 10-9, a knockdown would give the round winner a 10-8 score, two knockdowns 10-7, three 10-6..etc.
That judge was unaware that they could score a round 10-6 and effectively cost Pacquiao a split decision win.
You can follow all of our Pacquiao vs. Marquez 4 fight week coverage right here, or you can follow the tremendous SB Nation boxing blog Bad Left Hook for their in depth coverage.
See More:
