Pacquiao-Marquez a bloody draw but all-action!
Judges split in world featherweight championship
No unified champion-Pacquiao, Marquez retain belts in sizzling battle!

Report by Trinidad Guzman
photos by Chris Cozzone

“The People’s Champion” Manny Pacquiao (38-2-2, 29 KOs) knocked IBF/WBA featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (42-2-1, 33 KOs) down not once, not twice, but three times in the opening stanza of their mega featherweight showdown at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, but he was only able to come away with a draw for his efforts.

In boxing you must remember that nothing is as it seems.

Those three first round knockdowns that Pacquiao scored would somehow only be counted as two on one scorecard.  Judge Burt Clements decided that Pacquiao should only be credited with a 10-7 round instead of the appropriate 10-6 scoring. That discrepancy cost Pacquiao not only the win but also the IBF/WBA titles held by Marquez.  Judge Guy Jutras scored the bout 115-110 for Marquez while Judge John Stewart saw the bout 115-110 Pacquiao.  Clements saw the a draw:  113-113.  Had Clements scored the round correctly, then his 113-112 Pacquiao nod would have resulted in a split decision for “The People’s Champion.”

Pacquiao came out for the opening round snapping the jab.  Surprisingly it was Marquez who was sitting down on his shots, throwing them with serious power as Pacquiao advanced forward. Marquez was able to land the first significant punch of the fight when he popped Pacquiao with his right hand about a minute into the round. Marquez was having an excellent round until Pacquiao landed one thunderous straight left hand that sent the durable Marquez to the seat of his pants. Marquez quickly rose and listened to referee Joe Cortez administer an eight count.  When the action resumed, Marquez made the crucial mistake of trying to stand toe-to-toe with the power punching Filipino even though he had just tasted the canvas.

That strategy would backfire and almost cost him the ultimate price.  Another left hand from Pacquiao would drop him for the second time.  Marquez reached his feet but instead of holding and regaining his senses he tried to catch the aggressive Pacquiao as he came forward.  This strategy left Marquez wide open to be hit again with powerful left hands. Pacquiao was able to sneak another left hand through the guard of Marquez that dropped him for a third time in the first round.

Marquez laid on the canvas holding his nose while referee Joe Cortez continued the count. It appeared for just a moment that Marquez was not going to reach his feet in time. Marquez did pull himself up at the count of eight as he prepared to go back into the lion’s den. Marquez exchanged with Pacquiao for the last thirty seconds of the round but this time he was able to remain on his feet.

Marquez showed incredible heart and determination to battle through three knockdowns and a bloody nose in the opening round. 

Pacquiao would come out for round two shooting his bread and butter left hand.  Marquez moved backwards while doing his best to keep Pacquiao off with jabs and jab-right hand combinations. Pacquiao pressed forward and controlled the action in the second round. Marquez made it through round two without being dropped and had some success landing his own offensive assault. 

Marquez started to show his grit as a champion in the next several rounds.   Marquez began to get in his rhythm and started to land his jab as well as right hands.  Pacquiao became more and more content on just landing his powerful left hand. Marquez was throwing and landing whenever Pacquiao pressed forward.  Marquez kept Pacquiao on the outside more with his accurate punching activity.

Pacquiao was still throwing and landing his left hand but Marquez showed that he could weather an occasional flush left hand without going down.

This pace of the fight would continue for both fighters throughout most of the middle rounds.

Marquez continued his effective counterpunching and Pacquiao would try to force his way in to land his knockout left hand. Marquez’s counterpunching gradually slowed, as did the pace of the bout.  Pacquiao moved forward at times just throwing one single shot. The lack of an offensive assault from Pacquiao allowed Marquez to outwork him and get back into the fight on the scorecards.

Marquez was having such success landing counter shots that he began to sit down on his punches more.  Marquez connected with quite a few thudding right hands on Pacquiao, who would take the assault and then attempt to fire back his own bone crushing power bombs. The focused punching of Marquez would cut Pacquiao over the right eye in the fifth round. 

Marquez had clearly made the statement that he was here to fight and retain his titles.

The brutal pace of the fight had made its mark on both fighters. Marquez bled profusely from the nose as well as a swollen lip and Pacquiao sported a cut right eye plus the bridge of his nose was grotesquely swollen. 

The non-stop action continued in rounds eight and nine.  Marquez had more and more success with his right hands as Pacquiao tried desperately to land another left hand that might end the fight. Even when Pacquiao did land some thunder, Marquez was able to shake it off and fire back time and time again.

Pacquiao became increasingly wild as the rounds progressed which resulted in less success landing flush as he threw his shots like an unsophisticated assassin.  Pacquiao offered little in the way of effective counterpunching but instead he concentrated on that one big knockout bomb.

In rounds eleven and twelve - the championship rounds - the fighters continued to try to impose their will on each other. Marquez had great success throughout the fight whenever he forced Pacquiao back, which did not allow Pacquiao the opportunity to sit down and set his punches. Marquez was clearly the better boxer and controlled most of the action on the outside. Pacquiao was the bigger banger, but as the rounds progressed Marquez showed the ability to punch with Pacquiao in spots and hold his own whenever the two met inside.

Marquez surprised a lot of people with his aggressive stance in the fight.  The two warriors traded evenly with huge power shots going down the stretch.  In the end, their brilliant display of power, speed, aggression, heart, determination, and skill was rewarded with the decision of a majority draw.

Now boxing fans around the world are forced to wait and see if they will be blessed to see Pacquiao vs. Marquez II.

FightNews.com scored the sizzling bout 113-112 Marquez.

Cotto overcomes N'dou
by Chris Bronte

In the chief support, Puerto Rican fan favorite Miguel Cotto continued his meteoric rise to superstardom with a thrilling win over tough South African junior welterweight, Lovemore N’dou.

Although N’dou was a late sub for Juan Valenzuela, he dismissed any doubt that he might be out of shape by displaying a body that would give Adonis a run for his money.

Both fighters started in a very cagey manner, perhaps wary of each other’s power. However as the first stanza drew to a close, both seemed to lose respect for one another and began to let their hands go, to the crowd’s delight. It was a close round although Cotto was a little busier.

The second began in much the same vein, with both fighters looking to counter. Cotto, although on the back foot for most of the round, showed why he is so dangerous by catching N’Dou with some wicked body shots.

In the third stanza, N’Dou began to come on and landed some heavy leather on his opponent, but he still appeared just a little tense and unwilling to open up. Cotto, for his part, responded as the round drew to a close and imposed himself upon N’Dou, bullying him with his superior size and hand speed.

A still reticent N’dou did very little for the first half of the fourth round, but began to counter well and put some punches together as the round progressed. However, what could have been a close round turned in Cotto’s favor by the excellent hooks he was ripping to N’Dou’s midriff.

The fifth round began promisingly for N’dou as he promptly landed a corking right hand flush on an advancing Cotto’s chin. Looking relaxed with his left hand dangling by his side, N’Dou began to warm to the task and found a home for several chopping right hands on the side of Cotto’s face. This was, by far, N’dou’s best round yet.

Unable to capitalize on the success of the previous round, N’dou, again, began to wait too long to fire off his shots. Cotto had continued success by working the body and showed what a formidable puncher he can be as when in close, as he was able to fire off quick volleys of hooks to N’Dou’s sides.

Bizarrely, both fighters switched to southpaw as the seventh round began. N’Dou had had success with this tactic when he fought Shamba Mitchell back in February. And he had success with it with Cotto—at least for a while. However, Cotto matched him shot for shot and came back stronger, landing two huge lefts midway through the round. N’Dou showed a great set of whiskers in taking these shots, as lesser men would have capitulated.

Perhaps sensing a points deficit, N’Dou began to stalk his man through the eighth. Cotto, for his part, was more than happy to box off the back foot and land some shots on N’Dou before he allowed him to close the distance. N’dou showed great determination as he doggedly kept coming forward, but he just couldn’t pin down the dancing Cotto.

N’dou’s determination began paying dividends in the ninth as he appeared to be getting stronger and stronger. This was his best round yet as he caught Cotto with some lovely right hands . One sensed that perhaps the tide was turning as Cotto seemed to be back-pedaling just a little too much.

Although still in retreat for most the tenth round, Cotto boxed beautifully and displayed an educated jab, that could be seen snapping N’dou’s head back with great frequency. N’dou was not discouraged though, and having got caught with a nice combination, woke up and ended the round strongly.

The penultimate round saw Cotto continue to box superbly, using every square foot of the ring to his advantage. His jab was working lovely and his movement meant that the ever-advancing N’dou just couldn’t land anything meaningful, although he would occasionally land a chopping right.

Going into the last round, one knew that N’dou would need to do something dramatic to pull it out. And to his credit, he certainly tried. He surged forward looking to land that big punch, but much to the dismay of the heavily Mexican populated crowd, Cotto was reluctant to engage him. For much of the round, N’dou forced the action but it was Cotto who ended stronger. Having maneuvered a now tiring N’Dou into a corner, for the last ten seconds, Cotto unleashed a barrage of straight lefts and rights seemingly rocking N’Dou for the first time in the evening.

At the end of a riveting twelve rounds, the judges had it unanimously for Cotto with scores of 117-111, 115-113 and 116- 112.

Off-TV bouts
Al stops Robertson
by Chris Bronte

In superwelterweight action, Hassan Al , a Turk by way of Denmark, was pitted against Oregon’s Quandray Robertson.

It was obvious from the fight’s first minute that this was going to be a classic boxer-  (Robertson) versus brawler (Al). The action was fast and furious from the opening bell as Al pressed forward, landing some hurtful body shots on his ripped opponent. Robertson used his reach to confuse Al and boxed off the ropes for much of the round.

Midway through the second, the winging Turk finally found his target with an overhand right that dropped Robertson in a neutral corner for the eight count. Robertson recovered well and showed good movement to weather the storm.

The fight continued in this vein for the ensuing rounds: Robertson would start the round strongly boxing his opponent’s head off, but would lose his legs for the latter part of the round, and would then suffer debilitating shots while laying on the ropes. Robertson would occasionally land a solid shot but Al was unmoved by them and would just keep pressing forward.

Finally in the sixth round, Al caught his wearying opponent with a picture perfect right cross which dropped him hard. Although Robertson rose at eight, referee Jay Nady called it off at 2:19, feeling that Robertson couldn’t continue. Roberston protested the stoppage leaping around the ring to show that he was ok—he even did a backflip—but it was too late.

Gonzales-Cruz a No-Contest
by Chris Bronte

The evening’s action opened with a thoroughly entertaining lightweight clash between Californian Adam Gonzales (10-10, 5 KO’s) and Puerto Rican Juan Ramon Cruz (9-1-1, 6 KO’s).

Despite having the poorer record, it was Gonzales who impressed in the first stanza, using good movement and showing good hand speed to keep his plodding opponent at bay. Both fighters had their moments, although it was Gonzales who landed the higher volume of punches. He kept up the initiative in the second round and had Cruz looking troubled with his lovely long jab. Gonzales, however, began to bleed quite heavily from the nose, which seemed to spur his opponent on. Although Gonzales’ round, Cruz was coming on very strong as the round came to an end.

Nolasco upsets Quintero
by Trinidad Guzman

Lightweight Johnny Nolasco was able to score a shocking one-punch knockout of formally-undefeated Arturo Quintero in the final round of their six round bout. The light-hitting Nolasco started the bout boxing and moving while Quintero pressed forward to stalk his prey. Nolasco showcased pleasant hand speed and was able to land at will whenever he decided to throw. Quintero seemed uninterested in anything that Nolasco had to offer up, but quickly became interested when Nolasco landed a thumping left hook to his chin that sent him to the canvas in Round Number One. Quintero quickly rose, but continued to move forward with little regard for his defense.

Quintero got back on track in the second round, pressing Nolasco with solid bodywork along with wide, wild right hands. Nolasco was backpedaling, and was often caught, but would always offer back his own quick combinations to Quintero's head. Quintero continued to show a lack of defense, even though he'd already been dropped in the bout. Regardless, Quintero's power-punching enabled him to win round after round although Nolasco had spots where he would land flush shots on the undefeated fighter.

That lack of defense from Quintero would be his undoing, when in the sixth and final round, he, once again, pressed forward with little regard for Nolasco’s power punches, and got caught with a haymaker right hand that came from left field. It shook the arena when it landed with crushing force on the chin of Quintero, dropping him to the canvas face first. Referee Kenny Bayless quickly waved off the bout and requested ringside physicians to enter the ring.

With the impressive one punch knockout win, Nolasco improves to 12-3-3 (5 KOs) while Quintero suffers his lone defeat, falling to 10-1 (6 KOs).

Echols & Thompson's sleepwalkout bout
by Trinidad Guzman

In middleweight action, Antwun Echols went ten dull rounds with Ross Thompson, taking a lopsided decision with scores of 98-90, 98-92, 99-91.

Echols simply outworked Thompson from Round One to Ten, while Thompson was content to cover up and throw potshots whenever he got the urge to actually show that he was there to fight. Echols did nothing special in the fight, and the two fighters often appeared to be using this opportunity to brush up on sparring techniques. Whenever one of them would land a solid blow, it was either followed by holding, and a lack of killer instinct by the pressing fighter. Echols, who is known as a power puncher, was never able to hurt the much smaller Thompson, and seemed to just be going through the motions throughout the entire bout.

With the win Echols improves to 27-5-1 (28 KOs) and Thompson drops to 26-9-2 (17 KOs).

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