Tweet
BY MICHAEL KATZ - Oh, brother, and I don’t mean which Klitschko is next for the evergreen Samuel Peter. Brother acts in boxing, generally, have been more successful than say brother acts in the Bible, which started with Cain’s knockout of Abel and included Jacob’s rasslin’ victory over Esau and Joseph being sold out by his brethren. Two weeks after his younger brother, Rafael, lost in what will probably be the 2008 fight of the year, Juan Manuel Marquez probably will lose Saturday night in a possible FOY runnerup.
In a rematch of a remarkable 2004 scrap, the older of the Mexico City pound-for-pounders is about a 2-1 underdog, deservedly, to Manny Pacquiao, who also has a boxing brother. Bobby Pacquiao, who appears on a Vegas card the night before the big pay-per-view show at the Mandalay Bay, is not in the same class with his brother or Juan Manuel’s.
Yes, there is a strong preference here for Manny Pacquiao to end the long debate of who won their first meeting. Pacquiao knocked down a rather ****y and loose – trainer Nacho Beristain’s assessment – Marquez three times in the first round only to wind up with a draw. Never mind the scorecard of Burt Clements, who didn’t realize he could have scored the opening round 10-6, as did the other two official judges, instead of 10-7 and ended up having the bout a draw.
For four years, there has been a chorus of “experts” who claim Marquez got up and clearly dominated the rest of the bout. Give Marquez credit – he got up three times, including the third when he was hit while he was down (he said he was angrier with Referee Joe Cortez than he was with his opponent).
He shifted into his usual counter-punching mode and suddenly the southpaw Pacquiao’s left hands were falling short and the Mexican was raking him with right hands.
Yes, to a degree. But while Marquez incredibly fought his way back, he did not win. I don’t remember my ringside scorecard, but I had the Pac Man clearly ahead. I watched the HBO tape of the original again and, leaning over backwards for Marquez, still had the Filipino star ahead by three points. [details]
In a rematch of a remarkable 2004 scrap, the older of the Mexico City pound-for-pounders is about a 2-1 underdog, deservedly, to Manny Pacquiao, who also has a boxing brother. Bobby Pacquiao, who appears on a Vegas card the night before the big pay-per-view show at the Mandalay Bay, is not in the same class with his brother or Juan Manuel’s.
Yes, there is a strong preference here for Manny Pacquiao to end the long debate of who won their first meeting. Pacquiao knocked down a rather ****y and loose – trainer Nacho Beristain’s assessment – Marquez three times in the first round only to wind up with a draw. Never mind the scorecard of Burt Clements, who didn’t realize he could have scored the opening round 10-6, as did the other two official judges, instead of 10-7 and ended up having the bout a draw.
For four years, there has been a chorus of “experts” who claim Marquez got up and clearly dominated the rest of the bout. Give Marquez credit – he got up three times, including the third when he was hit while he was down (he said he was angrier with Referee Joe Cortez than he was with his opponent).
He shifted into his usual counter-punching mode and suddenly the southpaw Pacquiao’s left hands were falling short and the Mexican was raking him with right hands.
Yes, to a degree. But while Marquez incredibly fought his way back, he did not win. I don’t remember my ringside scorecard, but I had the Pac Man clearly ahead. I watched the HBO tape of the original again and, leaning over backwards for Marquez, still had the Filipino star ahead by three points. [details]
Comment