Many people consider the Greatest Boxer of the recent era to be Manny Paquiao. And this is for good reason – he has won a championship in eight different divisions while going 53-3-2. Others are in the camp that Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is the Greatest Boxer of the recent era. This is also for good reason – he has won a championship in five different weight classes while going 42-0-0.
But the two have never fought each other, mainly because they can’t agree to a drug testing policy. Mayweather wants Olympic style drug testing and Pacquiao won’t agree to that. If they were to ever fight each-other, it would most likely be the most hyped, highest grossing fight of all-time.
Recently, Mayweather has said he is going to put together the biggest fight possible on May 5th. Basically, that means Mayweather-Pacquiao.
Tonight, Pacquiao fought Marquez for the third time. They fought to a draw in the first match-up and Pacquiao won the second. Pacquiao won tonight with a majority decision 2-0-1.
Marquez should have won this fight. He was in control early, and had Pacquiao off balance for most of the night. Pacquiao started to get back into it late, but it was too little too late, in my opinion and that of many, many analysts. Basically, the official scorers scored the name (Pacquiao) and not the actual fight. This is sad for Marquez, who truly got robbed in this one.
Conspiracy theory at it finest – the fight was fixed to hype up Mayweather – Pacquiao. But winning this fight actually might not improve the chances of Mayweather – Pacquiao. If Pacquiao did lose the fight, it would have almost guaranteed that he agreed to fight Mayweather to prove that he is still the greatest boxer. But now, he still doesn’t have overwhelming motivation to fight Mayweather. He has to know that if he fights Mayweather the same way he fought Marquez tonight, he will get crushed.
Mayweather is about as perfect of a fighter as you will find, and if he gets his chance against Pacquiao, I don’t see him losing.
If you saw the fight and can honestly say that Pacquiao won, please comment below with reasoning.
[Photo Credit: pacquiaovs-marquez3.blogspot.com]