Pacquiao: Just watch the replay


By Alex P. Vidal


LOS ANGELES, California -- For Manny Pacquiao, there is no need to insist that he outduked Juan Manuel Marquez in their epic third fight on Saturday night (November 13) saying "just watch the replay (of the 12-round battle for the WBO welterweight championship)."
"I admit that the fight was very closed, but we should not expect that all my fights are like the (Antonio) Margarito fight (where he clearly dominated the tall Mexican en route to a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision win in November 2010)," Pacquiao offered as excuse to justify the majority decision win over 38-year-old Marquez over 12 heats at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Asked whether he would face Marquez again for the fourth time next yeat, Pacquiao quipped, "Why not? It depends on the decision of my promoter. My job is only to fight."


DIFFICULT


Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KOs) admitted he had difficulty connecting his solid blows in the early rounds as Marquez elected to retreat while throwing counter punches.
Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said he would sit down first with representatives of both parties to suggest a fourth match. "If both parties will agree, then we will come up with the fourth fight," Arum announced.
Arum praised both fighters for "rewarding" boxing. He scored those who twitted that the fight was a hogwash calling them "assholes."
Marquez disputed the three judges’ scores of 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112 insisting "I was robbed."
Judges score a professional bout based in ring generalship, defense, and effective hits. Many ring experts believed Pacquiao managed to rally in the last four rounds to cut down the deficit and nail the victory on a "strong finish."


RETIRE


Marquez (52-6-1, 39 KOs) told journalists during the post fight press conference he might retire "out of frustrations" over the controversial verdict. 
"I don't know what else I would do to change the minds of the judges," Marquez sobbed. "I was clearly robbed and the best judges were the fans."
He is also thinking of wearing a t-shirt that screams "I beat Pacquiao three times" to manifest his protest but admitted he was not inclined to file an official protest with the WBO saying "it would make me look bad."
Compubox showed Pacquiao connected 176 of 578 punches thrown after 12 rounds. Marquez connected 138 of the 436 punches thrown.
Pacquiao connected 59 of the 304 jabs thrown as against Marquez's 38 of the 182 thrown. Pacquiao connected 117 of the 274 power punches thrown as against Marquez's 100 of the 254.
Pacquiao had an average of 49 punches thrown and connected 14 per round as against Marquez's 36 punches thrown with 11 connected per round.
There were no knockdowns and referee Tony Weeks had an easy job in all the 12 rounds.