By Rob Smith: Dan Rafael of ESPN said before last Saturday’s fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao that the winner of that fight would be considered the series winner of the four-fight series between the two fighters. That may sound kind of strange but Rafael said that the boxing public already perceive Marquez as having given Pacquiao all he could handle in the first three fights, so all it took was for Marquez to beat Pacquiao in the 4th fight to claim the title as the dominate fighter of the series and I agree with Rafael.
I think Marquez really proved that he’s the superior fighter with his 6th round knockout victory over Pacquiao, and I also had Marquez winning the first three fights. I only gave Pacquiao a small handful of rounds in those previous fights because he was mostly getting out-boxed left and right by Marquez.
Bob Arum is talking about a 5th fight which is a pretty good idea because it will give a clearer idea who the superior fighter is between them. I think right now you’d have to lean in Marquez’s direction for that fight as well, because he looked like the younger fighter, stronger and the better skilled fighter of the two last Saturday night. If Arum is serious about wanting to make the Pacquiao-Marquez rematch in April of next year then I see Marquez as still being too good for Pacquiao to beat. The only way this changes is if Marquez all of a sudden gets old overnight, which isn’t too likely given his performance last Saturday night.
Pacquiao had problems with Marquez even when he was fighting well in the 5th and parts of the 6th. When Pacquiao had Marquez up against the ropes and was flurrying on him, Marquez was landing some hard shots that were definitely finding their and it was pretty clear that Marquez was going to knock Pacquiao out once he connected with another perfect shot like the one he landed in the 3rd round to put Pacquiao down.