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 Heavyweight Drama at 126 Pounds - Marquez and Pacquiao Battle to a Stalemate
By Thomas Gerbasi (May 9, 2004) Photo © Chris Farina
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Scoring three knockdowns on Juan Manuel Marquez tonight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas couldn’t get Manny Pacquiao a victory; a stirring comeback over the next eleven rounds didn’t do the trick for Marquez either. But after an epic battle between the two best featherweights in the world that had a lot of blood, a lot of drama, and a lot of heart, maybe a draw was the only fitting ending.
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Tonight’s scores, as in any close fight, will undoubtedly be cause for discussion over the coming week, with John Stewart scoring it 115-110 for Pacquiao, Guy Jutras giving 10 of the last 11 rounds to Marquez to have it 115-110 for the Mexican, and Burt Clements having it deadlocked at 113-113. Clements scored the first round 10-7, not 10-6 as did the other two judges, and which is customary in a round in which three knockdowns are scored. A 10-6 first round for Pacquiao would have given the Philippine hero a split decision win.
The draw allows Marquez to keep his WBA and IBF featherweight titles.
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"I’m disappointed,” said Pacquiao (38-2-2, 29 KOs), who was fighting for the first time since a November dismantling of Marco Antonio Barrera. "should have won this fight.”
A win for Pacquiao would have paved the way for another superfight, this one in July against Erik Morales. Those plans are most likely on hold, but it didn’t seem that way after a hellacious first round in which Marquez was almost on the receiving end of a first round knockout.
The fight began with both boxers exhibiting the nervous energy most likely experienced by everyone in the arena. Marquez landed his first counters, sending Pacquiao back on his heels briefly. But his success would be short lived, as midway through the round Pacquiao scored with a stiff left, sending the champion to the seat of his pants.
"I went in there overconfident and he caught me,” admitted Mexico City’s Marquez (42-2-1, 33 KOs)
Seconds after rising, Marquez went down again as the crowd erupted.
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Rising to his feet again, Marquez, with too much pride to give ground, came right back at Pacquiao, who sent him sprawling to the ropes with yet another left. While hoisted up by the ropes, Marquez was punched again and went down. He rose at eight and continued to stand in front of the ‘Pac-Man’, who was unable to put Marquez down for the count in the opening frame.
"There was not enough time,” said Pacquiao.
Marquez went back to his corner bleeding profusely from his nose, and needed all the wisdom of trainer Nacho Beristain to get him back into the fight. Keeping his distance as the second began, Marquez boxed with a clear head as Pacquiao kept shooting in left hands, trying anything in his power to put his foe down again. As the round progressed, Pacquiao kept pressing and landing, but Marquez bravely held his ground and actually started to land some wide shots of his own.
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"The most important thing was avoiding his left hand,” said Marquez. "After we did that, we were able to counterpunch him.”
Already in a likely five-point hole, Marquez had to pick up the pace in the third, and he started to dig to Pacquiao’s body in hopes of slowing the Philippine bomber down. And even though Marquez was able to score fairly effectively in the round, when Pacquiao started his pendulum-swinging movement from side to side as he moved forward, there was danger in the air.
Once again controlling the pace of the action in the fourth, Marquez kept his foe at bay, counterpunching efficiently and throwing in the odd low blow that took Pacquiao’s head off his game plan as he complained to referee Joe Cortez.
Landing his best shot of the fight in the fifth, a jarring right to the jaw, Marquez moved forward confidently, only to be sent back into counterpunching mode seconds later by a couple of Pacquiao bombs. But in the final 30 seconds, both fighters let it go, and Marquez came out on top, opening a cut on Pacquiao’s right eyelid.
Suddenly, the fight of the year was back.
Another big right jarred Pacquiao midway through the sixth round, and despite his blood splattered trunks, Marquez was not the same fighter he was in round one, as he proudly walked back to the corner after another effective three minutes.
Marquez varied his arsenal in the seventh, shooting hooks and crosses to the head and body as Pacquiao seemed taken aback, not only by Marquez’ attack, but by his resilience. Both warriors exchanged hostilities in the final minute, and by the end of the round, Pacquiao’s lefts were being met by Marquez’ rights, producing the type of facial damage only experienced by real fighters in real fights.
The pace slowed in the first two minutes of the eighth, with some fierce, evenly matched spurts of action in the final 60 seconds making the round hard to score. Pacquiao rebounded with some hard left hands and uppercuts in the ninth, but Marquez took each shot and came back firing, much to the delight of the “Pac-Man”, who raised his hands in glee when the action heated up.
Again in the tenth, both fighters nervously hopped around each other until the first shot landed, making it wartime again. And this time, Pacquiao’s left found a home with regularity, not hurting Marquez, but jarring him enough to score points.
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The power shots continued to find their marks for both men in round eleven, but at this point of the bout, neither man would give the other the satisfaction of going down or looking hurt. It was all pride now.
Marquez opened the final round by landing a couple of effective shots as he waited for Pacquiao to commit himself. And Pacquiao did commit, scoring some heavy blows at the midpoint of the round. With 30 seconds left, the crowd rose to its feet in tribute, and as both men raised their hands at the final bell, it was obvious that despite any scoring controversies, both Pacquiao and Marquez were winners in the eyes of boxing fans.
In the co-feature, highly touted junior welterweight Miguel Cotto effectively made the transition from prospect to contender with a hard fought 12 round decision over Sydney, Australia’s Lovemore N’dou.
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Scores were 117-111, 115-113, and 116-112 for Cotto. At stake were the WBC International and WBA Fedelatin junior welterweight titles, as well as the IBF’s number one contender spot.
The win by the former Olympian, which was his first over a legitimate junior welterweight contender, puts Cotto squarely at the head of the Class of 2000.
After a slow opening two minutes, Cotto began his offensive attack in the first with whipping hooks to the body as N’dou answered with counter hooks of his own.
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Both men continued to trade power shots in spurts during the second, with Cotto concentrating on the body as N’dou fired upstairs, tossing in a few jabs for good measure.
Cotto upped his workrate in the third, but just when the Puerto Rican would get into a rhythm, N’dou would battle back, doing effective work when able to trap his foe on the ropes. Yet Cotto showed the poise of a veteran, mixing his punches up beautifully as he raised some swelling on N’dou’s face.
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Sustaining his forward movement in the fourth, Cotto pounded N’dou in the late stages of the round, eating some big right hands in the process, but he was nonetheless undeterred in his attack.
N’dou changed his strategy up a bit in the fifth, frustrating Cotto with his movement and variety of shots, en route to winning the round and making the bout a bit more interesting.
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Trying to show that he had some tricks of his own, Cotto came out for the sixth in a southpaw stance, which he quickly switched out of and then resumed his body attack, nailing N’dou with some heavy hooks as he backed him into a corner.
The 23-year-old began the seventh as a lefty again, and quickly put N’dou back into a corner with his quiet form of pressure. Once out of the corner, it was the Australian in the southpaw stance, and he landed an effective 1-2 flush on Cotto’s jaw, showing the youngster that he was still in the fight, a fact that also appeared on Cotto’s swelling left eye.
N’dou continued to work effectively as a lefty early in the eighth, but whenever Cotto would get his foe in the corner or on the ropes, all bets were off, as the Caguas native teed off to the head and body. Like clockwork though, N’dou would fire back just when it appeared that Cotto was on the verge of ending matters.
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Round nine saw both men back in conventional stances, with Cotto actually bouncing and dancing around the ring as N’dou pursued him from corner to corner. N’dou landed another big right with a little over a minute to go in the round, and Cotto fought back only in spurts, perhaps taking a round off to conserve his energy for rounds 10 through 12.
Cotto jumped back into the fray in the tenth, and removed any doubts as to his conditioning as he pressed the action on a tiring N’dou, with some fiery exchanges producing a roar from the crowd.
Each fighter had his moments in the eleventh, with N’dou in the role of aggressor as Cotto again decided to box from a distance.
N’dou, sensing that he needed a knockout to win, roared out of his corner in the final round, landing two big right hands that had to have made Cotto supporters happy that the Australian wasn’t a bigger puncher. At the midway point of the frame, N’dou went right hand crazy, looking to land a finisher, but Cotto weathered the attack, and the final flurry of the bout was landed by the Puerto Rican, who made it through his first gut check with flying colors.
With the victory, Cotto improves to 20-0 with 16 KOs. N’dou, who gave Sharmba Mitchell fits in February, drops to 38-7-1 with 24 KOs.
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E-Mail  Thomas Gerbasi at tgerbasi@mindspring.com
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