Juan Manuel Márquez punches the face of boxing, figuratively and literally. Props: Fox News Latino
With all of the hype surrounding last night’s UFC on Fox, a quick finish in Velasquez vs. Dos Santos was far from ideal. As we’ve mentioned, it left fans, many of whom first time viewers, with an anticlimactic feeling. Immediately following the UFC’s debut on Fox was the main event of that other combat sport’s event from last night: A welterweight title fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao.
Even though Manny Pacquiao is arguably the best boxer alive, many people felt that the 10-1 underdog Juan Manuel Marquez won their first two meetings. An exciting fight between Marquez and Pacquiao could have given boxing some much needed publicity after Dos Santos quickly knocked out Velasquez, and possibly have kept casual fans from jumping over to mixed martial arts. Frankly, the only truly damning result for the sport would be for the fight to end in a controversial decision that gets the crowd thinking that the fight was fixed.
If you’ve followed boxing at all over the past few decades, you already know where this is going.
Marquez lived up to his reputation as a dangerous counter-puncher, causing Manny Pacquiao to look lost throughout the fight. When the fight was over, Pacquiao returned to his corner with his head down, as if he were ashamed of his performance. However, two of the three judges saw the fight in favor of Manny Pacquiao, while the third judge saw the fight as a draw. The fans in attendance booed the decision as they showered the ring with cans and bottles.
Perhaps Marquez summed it up best with this quote: “It’s hard when you’re fighting your rival and the three judges, too”. Yes, biased judging is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to problems with professional boxing. But once again, the sport had a golden opportunity with last night’s anticlimactic finish for the UFC’s debut on Fox, and failed to capitalize. After watching the fans react to last night’s decision, it was pretty clear that even the most diehard boxing fans are getting fed up with the current state of their sport.
It begs the question: How many more times can they be teased with Mayweather vs. Pacquiao before they embrace their inner homosexual skinhead?