Basement Notes: Pacquiao-Marquez

By the time they stepped into the ring on Dec. 8 last year, episode four of the ongoing dialogue between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez seemed to be the only logical option for either fighter. Both were close to the end of their careers but still near the pinnacle of their capabilities. Pacquiao, the eight-division legend in the process of transitioning into politics full-time, was coming off his first loss in seven years after a laughable decision went to Timothy Bradley the previous June, and Marquez, just a few months shy of 40 and getting steadily better over the past decade, finally appeared to be settling in at the welterweight limit where Pacquiao has resided since 2008.

Pacquiao-Marquez had been sold before, in three equally electrifying (and equally frustrating) editions—savagely poetic standoffs stretched over eight years that delivered on the hype every time, even if the results they produced failed to inspire clear majority support. Pacquiao had somehow come out of the series without a loss on his record, being awarded two agonizingly close decisions to go along with a draw. All three bouts had the unsettling look of a draw, however, and both fighters arrived in Las Vegas looking to find some closure through 12 more rounds together.

For the most part, fans had politely declined—after all, this wasn’t the fight that was supposed to happen. But with the negotiations for a bout between Pacquiao and long-time pound-for-pound contemporary Floyd Mayweather reaching new levels of absurdity while going absolutely nowhere, Top Rank CEO Bob Arum ultimately opted for another appointment with Marquez. A promoter doesn’t need a nation of fans to make money in boxing, only enough to fill the seats on fight night in Vegas and a million or so more to purchase the event at home. Any other figures become irrelevant.

And, as expected, the event itself was an unqualified success—the MGM Grand Arena, which hosts the bulk of the high-profile bouts staged in the U.S., quickly sold out, and about 1.15 million households shelled out 70 bucks for the pay-per-view broadcast. But the message, as always, was clear: Pacquiao-Marquez IV would be yet another wildly lucrative night for a sport that was destined for the farthest corners of the next morning’s sports page, a compulsory footnote in a discussion that boxing has shown very little interest in joining.

After a tentative opening round, the fighters got right to work in the second, trading sharp combinations throughout. Pacquiao began to make the most of the handful of opportunities Marquez provided him, and was on his way to winning the third when Marquez connected with a sweeping overhand right that dropped Pacquiao for the first time in the series. The Filipino congressman took a quick bounce backward and down onto the canvas, immediately hopped back onto his feet and then staggered, groping with his left hand to find the ropes. For a moment it wasn’t certain whether he would beat the count.

Pacquiao got both legs under him just in time and shifted his weight in the direction of referee Kenny Bayless, and after a brief conference was able to convince Bayless that he had the steam to continue and was of sufficiently sound mind to do so. He spent the remainder of the round sliding laterally, struggling to get his wind back without taking any more damage. Pacquiao managed to clear the fog in time for the start of the fourth, a tense round in which each fighter labored to establish an advantage, then came out for the fifth with new life. Midway through the round, Marquez got caught with a straight left that buckled his knees and forced the four-division champion to touch his glove to the canvas. The knockdown was the fifth scored by Pacquiao in the series, giving him a welcome boost on the scorecards, and though Marquez answered right away with a hard right, Pacquiao hurt him with a right hand of his own and Marquez went to his corner shaken up and bleeding badly from the nose.

The sixth round started out much the same as Pacquiao pounced on Marquez at the bell and landed a succession of vicious shots to try and close the show, and though Marquez held his ground, it was beginning to look as though it would take everything he had just to make it through to the seventh. As the round neared its conclusion, Pacquiao moved in for the kill but let his guard drop just enough on the way, and with one second remaining in the round Marquez leaned in and put all his weight behind a straight right hand that was still gaining speed when it crashed into Pacquiao’s face. Marquez’s momentum carried him forward after the shot as he dropped his arm and left Pacquiao, who was asleep before he hit the canvas, falling in the opposite direction.

Pacquiao thumped down face-first in front of a stunned ringside audience, and it took a moment for them to come to the realization that he would not be getting up. Marquez reacted in much the same way, looking back at Pacquiao with an almost reflexive disbelief as he leapt in the direction of a neutral corner, hesitating slightly while he processed the scene and then running up the nearest ring post to climb onto the ropes and raise his hands before a delirious
wall of noise.

Almost a full minute passed before Pacquiao regained consciousness, and a few more before he was able to stand and support his own weight. After being examined by doctors, he dragged himself over to Larry Merchant’s microphone and put together a dozen dazed but gracious sentences reiterating his respect for his opponent, assuring the thoroughly giddy crowd that he was open to make a deal for a fifth fight.

And with that, Marquez rewrote the entire history of his rivalry with the greatest fighter of the last 20 years, making a last-minute case for himself as perhaps the best to come out of a generation that included Pacquiao and future Hall of Fame formalities Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera. More importantly, though, he dealt what should be the final blow to the notion of a so-logical-it-never-had-a-chance showdown between Pacquiao and Mayweather.

In an instant, a fifth meeting with Marquez became Pacquiao’s only real option outside of retirement, except that now he’ll be going into what looks to be a September bout after suffering the sort of knockout that fighters don’t come back from easily, if they come back at all. Marquez, meanwhile, is headed for the biggest payday of his career and a chance to solidify his shocking coup of boxing’s pound-for-pound penthouse, in the fifth serving of a historic matchup that only the most committed among boxing’s remaining fans have asked for.