By Rob Smith: It was kind of strange to hear Manny Pacquiao saying he got careless in getting stopped in the 6th round by Juan Manuel Marquez last Saturday because Pacquiao’s entire fighting style, especially in this fight, has been one of fighting out of control. The difference here was that Marquez had the power to take advantage of Pacquiao’s aggressive style unlike in the three previous fights. Marquez didn’t have quite enough power to put Pacquiao down for the count despite hitting him often in their first three bouts of their series.

However, Marquez put on muscle for this fight with his strength and conditioning Coach Angel Hernandez assisting him. The muscle Marquez put on wasn’t the useless muscle that some fighters put on that slows them down without giving them any additional power. In this case, Marquez really was hitting with more power. We saw that early when he knocked Pacquiao down with a right hand in the 3rd round. You could tell how much stronger Marquez was from that punch alone because the shot made a loud thudding impact and Marquez wasn’t punching like that in previous fights.

Most fighters make excuses for when they lose but it just seemed kind of strange Pacquiao saying he got careless against Marquez when his whole game plan was to fight with aggressiveness in a toe-to-toe battle. Marquez didn’t fight Pacquiao in a toe-to-toe battle until the 5th and 6th. Things worked out at first for Pacquiao in the 5th when he knocked Marquez down and cut him, but in the 6th Pacquiao’s reckless fighting style led him to get knocked out.

Pacquiao wanted to fight in a toe-to-toe manner and it ended up costing him the fight by him getting knocked out. But to make an excuse about being careless that just doesn’t make sense.