An Eye Opener for the People's Champ

Once again, Manny Pacquiao edged Juan Manuel Marquez yesterday to end their trilogy at the MGM Grand Studio in a very controversial win. The defending champion defeated the “Dinamita” in a majority decision. The score cards: 114 – 114, 115 – 113 and 116 – 112, in favor of the People’s Champion.

But most of the viewers were not convinced on how PacMan sealed the win and Marquez is silently shouting “For the third time, I was robbed!”.

PacMan’s trainor, Freddie Roach, said that the fight is close, but still Manny won the fight. If Marquez wants another rematch, Manny will do it in May 2012.

In some boxing forums, they said that Manny was exposed during the fight with Marquez. Yes, indeed he was exposed; he was exposed to politics and entertainment before the fight. TV show appearances, commercials and even singing engagement deter PacMan to fully concentrate on his training. Another thing is his political ambition, he was too busy on his commitments in the Congress and the preparation for this fight was cut short in terms of focus and attention on his training.

I watched the replay on GMA 7 because I think it was unfair to Manny and Marquez to judge their fight by reading the comments on some social networking sites. If you will watch every round, it was obviously Manny won the fight but with a very slim edge on Marquez. So I will congratulate Manny for the win.

But one thing I observed from Manny is he is not in his usual form, or should I say he was a little bit “lost” in the ring. Marquez is very aggressive especially in the middle rounds, but Manny is not the “animal” in the ring yesterday. I can sense that he is a bit nervous about JMM.

Some of the critics said that Manny is on the verge of declining. Well, he is in his early 30’s, I think Manny cannot be a part time boxer at this time. Too many distractions on his side and the training is not as intense compared to his fight against Morales and Larrios. If he will continue to fight alongside with his political and entertainment disturbances, he cannot defeat Floyd Mayweather at any given time.

To sum it up, my respect for PacMan is still there, and I also want to congratulate Marquez for a very tough fight and for making PacMan realized that he ain’t no Superman.

To Manny Pacquiao, if you are very serious in facing Floyd Mayweather, you must start training now. I'm telling you, Mayweather has faster hands and definitely much bigger than Marquez. His counterpunching skills are in par or above the level of Marquez. If you can't even land one solid blow on Marquez, what more on Mayweather the defensive genius?