By CompuBox

No matter how many times Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez fight, they will produce nip-and-tuck affairs that are difficult to judge. Their first fight in May 2004 was a split draw that sparked plenty of debate and last Saturday’s rematch followed the same blueprint as Pacquiao captured a razor-thin split decision to win Marquez’s WBC super featherweight belt. With the victory, Pacquiao becomes the ninth man to win four divisional crowns, and the plan calls for the Filipino icon to gun for a fifth this summer.

Pacquiao won the judges’ nod based largely on the third-round knockdown, but the CompuBox statistics backed Marquez’s assertion that he should have gotten the nod.

Though Marquez threw 108 fewer punches (619-511), he landed 15 more (172-157) overall, and the 34-year-old Mexican also amassed a 16-punch edge in power connects (130-114) while throwing just five more (310-305). The only category Pacquiao out-did Marquez was in connected jabs (43-42), but the challenger had to throw 113 more of them (314-201) to do so.

Despite the above arguments in Marquez’s favor, if a judge had based his card solely on who connected more on a round-by-round basis (which they don’t), Pacquiao would have come out ahead 6-5-1, or 115-114. Incidentally, the even round occurred in the third, and had an extra point been awarded the scorecard would have read 115-113 Pacquiao, which would have been close to Duane Ford’s card of 115-112.

Just like the action inside the ring, the advantage in terms of overall connects swung from round to round. Pacquiao connected with more blows in the first (12-6), fourth (19-14), sixth (16-15), ninth (13-12), 10th (17-15) and 11th (16-12) while Marquez earned edges in the second (18-9), fifth (12-10), seventh (15-12), eighth (21-5) and 12th (19-15). As one can see, Pacquiao won his rounds by a combined 19 landed punches (an average advantage of 3.17 punches per round) while Marquez won his by a combined 34 (an average advantage of 6.8 per round). That means – from a statistical point of view – that Marquez won his rounds bigger than Pacquiao did his. Because judges base their decisions on clean punching and damage inflicted Marquez would have won those arguments from a purely numerical standpoint.

Speaking of damage done, if one broke down solely the power connect totals Marquez would have emerged with the 6-5-1 edge. Marquez won the second (12-9), fifth (10-4), sixth (14-13), seventh (12-8), eighth (15-5) and 12th rounds (15-10) while Pacquiao captured the first (8-4), third (9-7), fourth (13-9), ninth (11-9) and 11th rounds (11-10) while the 10th round was even at 13.

Marquez won his rounds by a combined 29 connects (an average advantage of 4.83 connects per round) while Pacquiao amassed a 13-punch advantage over his five rounds (a 2.6 punch per round edge).

The opinions concerning who should have won the fight are as divergent as the contrast in styles presented by the main-event fighters, and the arguments will surely rage for years to come. Such are the fruits of subjectivity.