by Lee Groves/CompuBox

First there was Manny Pacquiao’s breathtaking dismantling of the far bigger Antonio Margarito.

Then there was Sergio Martinez’s spectacular one-punch KO of the previously iron-chinned Paul Williams.

But boxing’s “November to Remember” reached a glorious crescendo this past Saturday when Juan Manuel Marquez and Michael Katsidis staged a top contender for Fight of the Year. Their nine-round war featured everything a boxing fan – and for that matter a sports fan – could ever want: Fierce exchanges, shifts of momentum, a surprising early-round knockdown of the reigning champion, a gusty effort from an underdog racked with grief and a humane well-timed stoppage by referee Kenny Bayless.

Marquez, who at 37 is the oldest man to hold a version of the lightweight title, racked up extraordinary numbers in picking apart the rampaging Australian. Averaging 69.7 punches per round (14 percent more than the 60 he averaged in his three other lightweight fights), Marquez landed 52 percent overall (327 of 628), 39 percent of his jabs (113 of 290) and an amazing 63 percent of his power shots (214 of 338).

The courageous Katsidis barreled in with guns blazing but his accuracy couldn’t keep pace with Marquez’s eye-popping precision. Against typical fighters, his percentages of 31 overall (194 of 630), 27 in jabs (39 of 146) and 32 (155 of 484) would have sufficed, but against this future Hall of Famer they fell short of the mark.

Still, Katsidis did not lack for achievements. In round seven, he threw more punches (119, breaking Manuel Medina’s 110 in round six), landed more power punches (39, shattering Juan Diaz’s 26 in round five in fight one) and threw more power punches (95, exceeding Juan Diaz’s 71 in round two of fight one) than any of Marquez’s 19 previous CompuBox tracked fights. He was also well on his way to eclipsing Diaz’s marks of 161 power connects and 500 power punch attempts set in his classic first battle against Marquez.

Meanwhile, Marquez established new offensive benchmarks. They include:

* 48 total connects in round 2 (old record 44 in round three against Terdsak Jandaeng)

* 21 jabs connects in round 2 (old record 17 in round five against Jandaeng)

* 327 connects in a fight (old record 288 against Juan Diaz in fight one)

* 214 power connects in a fight (old record 197 against Marco Antonio Barrera)

Not only that, Marquez tied his personal best for jabs thrown in a round with 48 in round two, duplicating his total in round two against Juan Diaz in fight one.

Marquez-Katsidis was one of the more thrilling one-sided statistical fights ever staged, for Marquez prevailed in 26 of a possible 27 categories, with Katsidis’ 32 power connects in round seven edging Marquez’s 31. Marquez landed 30 or more punches in each round save for the first (27) and surpassed 40 connects twice (rounds two and seven). Katsidis reached 30 connects just twice (30 in the sixth, 38 in the seventh) but fell to 28 and 9 in the final two rounds while Marquez surged to 31 and 36 connects.

The PunchZone maps revealed each man’s offensive blueprint. Marquez exploited Katsidis’ looping blows by striking his chin 182 times as opposed to 45 hits to the right side of the head and 39 connects to the left side. Of his 61 body connects, hooks netted 37 hits while rights found success 24 times.

Katsidis gunned for Marquez’s head throughout the fight, especially with left hands. That blow bagged nearly half (75) of his 159 head connects while his rights collected 44 connects. Marquez’s chin was least accessible to Katsidis as he registered 40 connects. The body attack was not in evidence as he amassed 35 connects – 15 with the left and 20 with the right. Neither man logged a low blow.

Marquez’s greatest desire is to secure a third match with pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao but given the current strife between Marquez’s promoter Golden Boy and Pacquiao’s Top Rank only overwhelming public demand could push the two parties to the bargaining table. Other options include the winners of Timothy Bradley-Devon Alexander and Amir Khan-Marcos Maidana, which would give Marquez the chance to become Mexico’s first four-division champion – a status eagerly sought by Erik Morales and old foe Barrera.

As for Katsidis, he honored the memory of his older brother by fighting so valiantly and that effort may well mean more big-money fights down the line. Arturo Gatti destroyed the old “one-loss-and-done” mantra on HBO’s airwaves with his exhilarating performances in defeat and Katsidis will likely continue to benefit from this enlightened thinking.

In the co-feature, 13-to-1 underdog Jason Litzau parlayed surges in the middle and late rounds to score a popular split decision over the weight-drained and seemingly under-motivated Celestino Caballero.

From a purely statistical standpoint Caballero was a clear winner. After all, he landed more punches in all three categories (197-130 overall, 80-27 in jabs and 117-103 in power punches), landed at a higher percentage across the board (44-25 overall, 34-13 jabs and 55-34 power punches) and prevailed in 21 of 36 rounds in the categorical round-by-round breakdowns. But when one digs deeper, the source of Litzau’s victory can be explained.

First, Caballero’s numerical dominance in the first four rounds dramatically shrunk from round five on, which gave the judges the impression that Litzau was surging more dramatically than the stats suggested. Here’s how:

In rounds one through four, Caballero out-landed Litzau 80-43 overall and 31-9 in jabs while the margins shrunk to 117-87 and 49-18 from round five on. But the true source of Litzau’s victory was in power shots. That allowed Litzau to hang tough with Caballero early (he trailed 49-34 over the first four) and to prevail late (he trailed only 68-67 in the final six rounds). That, combined with Litzau’s constant aggression and the fact that each of his power connects were harder, enabled him to overcome his statistical disadvantages. So while CompuBox can’t measure the impact of each punch, the raw statistics can sometimes explain why the judges saw what they saw.

The PunchZone maps revealed that the majority of Caballero’s offense consisted of straight punches down the middle as 89 of his 139 head connects targeted the chin (lefts produced 22 hits while rights netted 28 connects). As for his body attack, rights achieved far more success as they garnered 44 connects while lefts struck just 14 times.

Because the shorter Litzau had to loop his head shots over the top, 84 of his 103 connects were to the temples (36 with lefts, 48 with rights) rather than the chin (19 connects). As for his bodywork, Litzau’s hooks did more damage (16 connects) than his rights (11 strikes). Neither man registered a low blow.

With the victory, the 27-year-old Litzau breathed new life into his career while the 34-year-old Caballero is now a man without a superfight in his immediate future. Then again, in this ultra-cautious matchmaking age when vulnerability and defeat nets more opportunities than Sergio Martinez-like shows of domination, this loss may be the best thing that could have happened.