Another Pacquiao-Marquez thread? Banned.
To be honest, I picked Marquez to win the fourth meeting by decision. I never pictured him getting the KO. Based on what I saw - with all due respect to Juan - he's getting there, if you know what I mean. I'd pick Pacquiao to finally get his own clear win himself if a 5th fight happens.
There is a certain amount of luck in boxing, just as there is in really everything else that is competitive. The world's best poker player can lose to the world's second best, or fifth best, or 7th best. Nadal can lose to a player who was ranked 100th in the world, Lukáš Rosol. This doesn't mean Lukáš Rosol is better than Nadal, it means that things worked in his favor that day, or his style was beneficial to him in that matchup.
In boxing, skills, power, chin, etc. all give you a better probability of winning, they do not ensure it. Most of the time we have to be reasonable and ignore some of this reality, but it does exist. If a fighter has 0.01% chance of winning, yeah, he's effectively got "no chance" if we're talking like normal humans should. A punch can be "lucky", and Pacquiao could have gotten "lucky" earlier in an alternate universe. That we're not living in a perfect world where everything has a set outcome is my point, and that's what makes boxing in particular so fascinating.
Appreciate it!
For the record, Floyd himself has alluded to the old "puncher's chance". It's fairly well understood that it exists, and although I generally frown upon reducing it to such an unimpressive sounding phenomenon, it's worth noting that even one of the most technically skilled boxers in the world knows it's out there, and that it comes flying at him every time he steps into the ring.
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