The Truth Behind Manny Pacquiao’s Losses and Draws (Part 1)
Don’t just look at the records superficially…
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Tungod, Inabanga, Bohol – In a sport where quantity is, more often than not, given more credence than quality, seeing that unblemished records are irrationally brought to the table as major bargaining chips, one can’t help but wonder whether things are set into proper perspective or not. Here, we are going to dissect the few blots in the resume of Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, arguably the planet’s supreme living pugilist, and put some sense into senseless and utterly pointless notions that are primarily geared at diminishing the Pinoy pride’s greatness. They can try, but they will never succeed. They can’t put a good man, much less a great man, down.
Let’s start our discussion with the chronologically latest – the loss to Erik “El Terrible” Morales in the first edition of their explosive trilogy. Prior to this encounter, veteran trainer Freddie Roach worked with his prizefighter to develop a wicked punch using the right hand that they called Manila Ice. Owing primarily to the nasty cut suffered by Pacquiao caused by an accidental headbutt in the 5th round of that bout, the supposedly savage right hook was, however, deemed ineffective and inefficient. Pacquiao was practically one-eyed from the fifth round onwards.
Photo credit www.forum.philboxing.com
One might argue that Morales was dominating Pacquiao and that he kept the Pinoy firebomb backpedalling, which was construed then as a major chink in his armor – that Pacquiao couldn’t fight going backwards. The operative term there is “dominating”… but lo and behold, the judges scored the bout 115-113 across the board! Simply put, Morales just won two more rounds than Pacquiao did (7 rounds for Morales and 5 rounds for Pacquiao). I don’t know about you, but that would certainly not count as a dominating performance if you’d ask me.
Their 2nd encounter gave us a clear picture of what would have happened had Pacquiao avoided getting cut by a headbutt in their first faceoff. That bout started just as it did in the first one – with Morales getting the upper hand in the earlier rounds. It was a classic battle between man (Morales) and machine (Pacquiao). While Morales was slowly fading halfway through the fight, Pacquiao was relentless in his attack. If there is something that really sets Pacquiao apart from the rest of the boxing world, it is his ability to take a punch and dish out some more, which usually ends up with his opponent getting hurt while he unbelievably seems to be impervious to pain. The Marco Antonio Barerra (first bout),David Diaz and Miguel Angel Cotto showdowns, in one way or another, were concrete cases in point.
Now let’s go to perhaps one of the, if not the, most controversial and one might say highly contested fights to date – the draw with Juan Manuel Marquez. After getting knocked down three times in the first round, the gritty Mexican gallantly and methodically worked his way back into the fight to force a draw. Guy Jutras who was one of the judges scoring the fight even scored the bout 115-110 in favor of Marquez. This basically meant that in his eyes, Pacquiao only won one solitary round spanning the 2nd and 12th innings. Pacquiao’s critics and/or Marquez supporters, as expected would then feast on Jutras’ rather polemic assessment of the fight and would even go to certain depths like Marquez swept all the rounds except the first one. I can only shake my head in incredulity. These people probably watched too much of “Fernando Poe Jr.” type of films – pun intended. Quite apparently, their judgments were already clouded by the idea of Marquez getting up from those three knockdowns and still making a fight out of it. To them, Marquez was like a Cinderella in a 12-round fairy tale.
Looking back, had Burt Clements not forgotten his elementary mathematics, scoring the first round 10-6 instead of the ridiculous 10-7, there wouldn’t have been much controversy surrounding that fight. Would have Marquez and his cohorts had the guts to contest the decision? I believe not… or I could be so wrong and they could be so dim-witted. In the eyes of many, Pacquiao won that battle. Marquez himself conceded defeat by turning down a huge sum to do a rematch and instead took a measly $30K to defend his title in enemy territory, losing it in the process. Now that’s what you call poetic justice!
This is the first installment of a two-part special. To read the 2nd edition, just click the link provided below.
The Truth Behind Manny Pacquiao’s Losses and Draws (Part 2)
Hereunder are articles written by the same byline:
Mayweather: Untried, Unproven and Untested at Welterweight!
Boxing Blitz: World Stage Set for Another 19-Year-Old
Z “The Dream” Gorres and the Story that was Almost Never Told
The Analogy: Pacquiao is to LeBron as to Mayweather is to Kobe as to Robinson is to Jordan
Why Marquez Makes a Whole Lot More Sense Than Mayweather!
Seven, It Must Feel Like Heaven!
Pacquiao-Cotto: Let’s Keep It Real!
Two Pinoys Own the G.O.A.T Distinction: Will Manny Pacquiao Make it Triple B?
Comments are highly appreciated. Please write them below or send them to reylanloberternos@yahoo.com.ph
22 Comments
WOW! great post.. very interesting..
Interesting! Thanks!
to me, it is a biased commentary. All for PACMAN. But do you expect from the writer who is PACHUGGER?
I agree, bai Reylan.
@Ronald Raegun:
The writer may be a Pacquiao fan but the facts that he stated were true. Pacquiao really did had a cut in his Morales match that gave him a lot of trouble. How can a boxer box with one eye closed? With that said, Pacquiao deserved to be recognized in that fight even he did lose.
And in the Marquez fight, a judge really did a basic mathematics error. That judge admitted his mistake after the bout. So technically, Pacquiao should had won the fight. For all the Marquez lovers out there, please take note of my word \”technically\”, for you might argue that in your eyes Marquez should had won the said bout.
Defending Pacquiao\’s losses and draws is never invalid as long as it is supported by facts. The writer of this article did it nicely.
You may also call me a Pachugger (although I am not) if you want, but at least I am being factual. How about those who wanted to discredit Pac, do you have your valid arguments?
oooooold news.
here’s my version of truth:
morales was shot, he was weight drained during the second and third fight with pacquiao. he was simply the better man during the first fight. 115-113 i agree is not a score that displays domination BUT you can also use that score to say that the cut on manny’s eye didnt really gave him that big of a problem. had the cut REALLY made him fight on one eye, ineffectively, from the 5th round onwards the score wouldnt have been 115-113. again, manny is simply not the manny we know today in the first fight.
the draw with marquez like the fight above, is water under the bridge.
everybody knows the “truth”, whethere they subscribe to it or not. so what could be your objective in writing this article?!? beats me… deadline?
Exactly, and yet forget to mention that Marquez was promoted by Arum and Pacquiao by Murad if you know what I mean.
im a pacman fan, but i find this article as bias. anyway, we are free to express our feeling though.
I heard Pacman sprained his arm due to his powerful punches in the first round and also got a bruised feet sole due to bad pair of socks. So despite fighting injured from rounds 2-12 Marquez still has no match against the pacman. And he was taken a late minute blood test before morales figfht so he got weak.
I believe Morales 1 was the only legit loss of Pacquiao’s career. Torrecampo had a lucky punch on a cocky unpolished version of Pacman while the Singsurat KO was brought about by dehydration as his still growing body at that point could no longer make the flyweight limit.
Nice share once again Bai
I guess you have to include in the discussion the preparation of the fight in which the first fight with Morales was a very bad experience for team Pacquiao. The medical check up, his sharing room with other members of the team and too much distraction in training camp. This is not to make excuses but we all know it’s a big factor.
to marc saying morales is weight drained.fyi,pac is also weight drained at the second morales fight.pac destroyed morales.pac is just far better than morales and morales himself is a hall of famer quality.
Well to marc,
1. how can you say morales was shot when he was so aggressive in that 2nd fight and he felt the power of manny in round 2 that is why he wasn’t engaging the way he did in their first fight.
2. manny fought morales with pillow gloves and a butted right eyebrow and he cannot even KO an injured Pac…lol
3. Yep, everybody knows the truth not your “truth” because the draw with marquez was a gift to him by the 2 blind mice named jutras and clements.
The first loss of Manny to Morales was not even legit. Remember the glove issue. Manny was forced to use the Winning glove which is padded heavily against his preferred glove which is Reyes, the puncher glove. Had he used the Reyes glove it would have been a different story.
I heard that a blood test 3 days before the first fight w/ the great morales was done to manny, that might have “weakened him(pac), but it might sound as an excuse but 3 DAYS before the fight might be too much or too soon beore a BIG FIGHT LIKE THAT (IMHO) (Arum was promoting Pac then and MURAD for PAC as far as I remember….
Pac-Morales 1 : watch again round 12 when MP is getting his rhythm…. fyi… MP has a cut on his right eye, but still Morales felt the power of MP. P4P….
if MP didn’t have the cut, it might have been a different story.
the gloves also was a factor also …… Pac-Morales 2 & 3 wherein Pac has not cut, and he’s now using Reyes gloves… the fight is way beyond their first fight..
He made very convincing points. Instead Pachatters make stupid remarks like Morales dominated hahaha then dont back it up with any evidence or no reason. They just expect us to believe them on their rediculous claims.
Great post. I like it. Very Interesting. Thanks for sharing it with us.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
-jaysonv
where\s part 2?
Pacman remains the best fighter. I would not even argue.
Good post.
Shalom.
Is this article bias??? are you stupid??? read the title, this article is about Pac written by a filipino, morons
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