.JPG&w=244&h=193&zc=1 "Andy Lee Kicks The Blues")
Living History: Juan Manuel Marquez Vs. Manny Pacquiao IV, One Day Later
We bore witness to enduring history last night, the kind of event that boxing aficionados will talk about for generations. And it's not too early to play boxing historian, either; it's often better to wait more than a day before foisting such sweeping declarations on a thing, because it is the nature of history for the long view to be the sharper-eyed one. But when Juan Manuel Marquez knocked out Manny Pacquiao Saturday night, any number of automatic, identifiable triggers were pulled, beyond the intuitive feeling from every boxing fan who saw it that they had just seen something they would never forget, something that was imprinted on their brains via instant flash burn.
That knockout was one of the most shocking one-punch KOs of a high level fighter ever. It's already been compared, rightly, to the likes of Thomas Hearns-Roberto Duran in 1984. Its nearest competitor is Sergio Martinez-Paul Williams II two years ago, and as highly-regarded as Williams was, he had no status as an all-time great, the way Pacquiao has. Pacquiao's knockout of Ricky Hatton in 2008 doesn't come that close because Pacquiao was the favorite to win.
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It was the best episode yet of the Pacquiao-Marquez rivalry, one that spans eight years and five divisions, beginning at featherweight and working its way up to welterweight. Since the turn of the millenium, the Pacquiao-Marquez series of fights counts among its peers only Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward, Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera-Erik Morales. Some of those others featured better individual fights. None of them featured fighters as good as Pacquiao or Marquez.
It will almost certainly end 2012 as the Knockout of the Year; Round 5 will be a strong contender for Round of the Year; the fight itself is a contender for Fight of the Year; and the win might make Marquez the Fighter of the Year. Marquez climbs the list of best Mexican fighters ever by doing what Barrera and Morales could not, which is to destroy Pacquiao, once known as "The Mexicutioner." The record-keepers who etch these kinds of things into books will, in a more permanent way, seal the enduring history of Saturday night.
And, look, this kind of mathematical method of parsing Marquez-Pacquiao 4 in a way turns it into a more clinical thing than it was. This was Mitt Romney's expression when Pacquiao dropped face-first in front of him as he sat ringside. This was Pacquiao's wife Jinkee flying into hysterics. This was the slow-motion replay of Marquez, blood trickling from his broken nose, catching a lunging Pacquiao with a punch of exquisitely destructive beauty. This was the scream of surprise from everyone who watched it happen. This was an idol of the sport laying helpless on the mat, the way he had left so many opponents before. This was boxing fans unable to type messages to their friends with trembling hands, unable to sleep because of the adrenaline coursing through their bodies. Maybe Sportscenter didn't see this as worthy of one of its 10 "Top Plays." But boxing fans know -- in their bones -- what they saw.
The long view might add additional shading for the better. There is one way where the passage of time might turn this event into a pivotal, ugly moment for the sport, in fact. We consider these things now.
Juan Manuel Marquez
This fight forever changes the legacy of Marquez. He already had a claim to best Mexican fighter of his generation over Morales and Barrera, but this cements it. For all he accomplished -- and it's true that it was one of the more underrated set of accomplishments in the sport prior to Saturday -- had Marquez never beaten Pacquiao, he would have gone down as the man who almost beat Pacquiao, or who beat Pacquiao three times without getting credit for it. Cold, hard win-loss records, though, have a way of persisting better than memories and perceptions. You could dispute Marquez's draw with Pacquiao or his two losses. It is harder to dispute something as vivid as the letter "W."
Nor can you dispute one of the ways Marquez did this: Superior ring intelligence. There is only one night in Marquez's career where he was definitively outsmarted, and that was against Floyd Mayweather. You can trace it back to the very first round of this rivalry, where Marquez was blitzed and dropped three times before he learned how to handle a physical marvel who had every advantage of speed and power and everything else that is in a boxer's body short of his brain. It is timing, it is spacing, it is the ability to make small adjustments where Pacquiao struggled to do the same. Each time they met, Pacquiao came into the fight with a different game plan, one that, on paper, had a chance of working. Each time they met, Marquez struggled with it, then overcame it. Pacquiao's physical advantages always manifested themselves; even the smartest fighters would have difficulty contending with those gifts. But Marquez figured Pacquiao out better every time they fought. Watch the first knockdown of the bout, but, first, rewind a little; notice that while Pacquiao was dialing in his straight left, Marquez was hammering Pacquiao with hard body shots. Then, on the knockdown, note how he faked a body punch with his left just enough to make Pacquiao alter his defenses, and then watch that looping overhand right sneak in and deck Pacquiao.
You can dispute one of the other ways he might have done it. Marquez, for the third meeting with Pacquiao, passed the threshold of reasonable suspicion of performance enhancing drug usage. When you have Angel Heredia, now going by the name Hernandez, in your corner, you are going to arouse reasonable suspicion. Hernandez is a former BALCO chemist who keeps saying and doing peculiar, suspicion-arousing things, like changing his name; like saying he has nine other boxing clients and not naming them; by saying he's willing to have his fighters tested and then not having them tested, or saying that they have been already, but not saying by whom; by bragging not so long ago how easily he could beat drug tests; etc. For the fourth meeting, Marquez aroused even more reasonable suspicion, for that absurd physique of his for a 39-year-old fighter and for hurting Pacquiao worse than he had ever been hurt in any of their meetings. There is no conclusive evidence of misdeeds here, but there are reasons to deeply worry that we just haven't seen the conclusive evidence that exists out there somewhere. Whether we ever will, given the state of testing and Heredia's expertise, is a great unknown.
There are, likewise, reasonable counters to the suspicion about Marquez. A lot of athletes have retained their vitality in their older years without ever having been found to abuse PEDs, and perhaps you can chalk that up to improved training methods, nutritionists, and better science rather than dark alchemy. Marquez has traversed no more weight classes than Pacquiao, who retained much of his power and even enhanced it while moving up in weight over the years. Marquez surely didn't look in his welterweight debut against Mayweather like he had done anything smart whatsoever in adding the weight, chubby fellow that he was, and perhaps he just applied proper methods to the task this time and the last one. And that knockout power? You simply cannot land a better punch on a human being than that one. Pacquiao literally jumped into Marquez's shot at the precise moment when that right was at the most damaging split second of its arc. As well, maybe that knockout said something about where Pacquiao was as a fighter at this point in his life, a point of discussion a little later.
(By the way, Pacquiao himself, once accused by the Mayweather clan of using PEDS without any evidence, has subsequently accumulated a bit more circumstantial evidence of potential use, like a propensity for leg cramps or a few troubling indicators involving his own strength coach Alex Ariza. And Heredia isn't the only former BALCO figure skulking about in boxing right now with clients. Victor Conte doesn't, to my mind, deserve a pass because he's affiliated with the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency, or because he did jail time and Heredia didn't. Both of these men cast themselves as reformers, yet despite Conte's association with VADA, VADA busted one of his clients, Andre Berto, earlier this year, with a banned substance in his body; and there's something untoward about Conte advising VADA -- in effect helping write the tests -- and then advising people who are being tested. All three of these men could be innocent, or, in the case of Heredia and Conte, could have turned over a new leaf. But their presence in the sport that just happens to have about the most extremely lax drug testing requirements of all is discomfiting.)
For now, it is fair to question whether some kind of chemical sorcery was at play here. If we find out that it was, this knockout will mutate from one of the sport's defining amazing moments to one of its defining disgusting ones, and hopefully a moment that would advance the sport's attitude toward PEDS from one step forward/two steps back to one of real change. More likely, we never find out for sure and a cloud of doubt hovers over Saturday night. One way or the other, Marquez got a career-defining victory this weekend. Time will tell how glorious, or ignominious, a victory it was. Until then, it's hard not to be at least a little happy for Marquez shedding the label of this era's longest-unwed bridesmaid.
Manny Pacquiao
Ironically, Pacquiao had been well on his way to winning the fight definitively himself before he got starched. He had been fighting well, and doing more damage to Marquez than Marquez was doing to him over nearly six rounds. Marquez's stand in the 5th was impressive in part because Pacquiao was putting it on him in such a frightful way. Pacquiao's eyes had a hard focus about them, a kind of visible determination that the happy-go-lucky warrior rarely displays. He looked like "elite Pacquiao," not "so-so Pacquiao."
But you have to wonder if all those years of distractions, the marriage drama and the political career and the acting and singing, caught up with Pacquiao the boxer. He showed up for camp later than his trainer Freddie Roach wanted, yet again. He hosted a fundraiser for Hurricane Sandy close to the fight. Pacquiao has shown great ability to fight through distractions, but they've also hurt him in some fights. He's talked of retiring for a long time, and at one point he was wrestling with whether boxing contradicted his Christian faith. Boxing training takes a kind of devotion that exceeds so many other commitments, and training for boxing at the elite level requires an almost demonic and solitary obsession.
Or perhaps the years have simply caught up with Pacquiao. He's turning 34 in a little more than a week. He began fighting at age 16. A great many of his fights were of the grueling sort. Few boxers can take the kind of punishment Pacquiao has over his career and still be elite. He had shown signs of decline well before, with some tracing the beginning of his decline to his May, 2010. His chin has always held up, but the cliche of a fighter "aging overnight" is a cliche for a reason: It happens. There's a moment when all the years and fights chip away at the essential qualities that made a previously invincible fighter disappear, rendering him rather -vincible. Pacquiao, always a class act, has made no excuses for his loss. Given some of his pre-fight comments about Heredia and Marquez's physique, I wouldn't be surprised to see Roach break that silence.
There is no shame in Pacquiao, after years of decline, getting stopped by his greatest and most difficult rival, even if that man was 39 years old. Marquez remained one of the five best active fighters, despite that age. What's more, this is boxing: People get knocked out sometimes. It is more impressive for a boxer to sustain the kind of streak Pacquiao has in fighting the elite fighters he has WITHOUT getting knocked out than it is for Mayweather to have spent so many years of his peak ducking top competition and doing the same.
Which brings us to that old debate. Some hardcore Mayweather fans were just salivating while waiting for a moment like this, when they could say, "See? We told you he was never that good." But nothing about this night erases anything that Pacquiao accomplished before. He was the Fighter of the Decade; he is the only man with four legitimate lineal championships ever; he is arguably one of the 20 best fighters that ever lived. You can pick apart his individual wins the same way you can pick apart any fighters' wins. But when a boxer keeps beating elite and/or all-time great fighters over and over and over and over again, it becomes hard to negate the entire body of work. Plain and simple, you don't beat the guys Pacquiao has beaten if you were not that good. Nobody else in this era has beaten as impressive a roster of fighters, including Mayweather. Mayweather fought the best early in his career, and with the notable exception of Pacquiao, has tangibly improved his competition in the last few years, but he had a long empty period where he wasted his talent. Now, with Pacquiao-Mayweather spoiled -- it was certainly diminished by the passage of years, as Pacquiao began to slide -- the one person Mayweather could've beaten to end the argument would do no such thing for him. For as much as both bore the brunt of the blame for not making the fight happen, Mayweather owns more of that blame.
What's next, then, for Pacquiao and his sport? I have no interest in Pacquiao-Marquez 5. I have no interest in any rematch of a fight that ends like that one. Perhaps Pacquiao can recover from such a devastating knockout; that kind of thing has happened before. Perhaps he could even beat Marquez in a fifth meeting. If that happened, maybe Pacquiao could add to his legacy. But his legacy is secure no matter what he does next.
If he retires, we will have lost one of the two men (along with Mayweather) who have ruled boxing financially and atop the pound-for-pound rankings for so long. Inevitably, panic will set in for boxing fans. Mayweather isn't much longer for the sport himself, as his own physical assets have begun to fade. I, however, feel as good about the next generation of stars as I ever have since Mayweather and Pacquiao took the baton from Oscar De La Hoya and people began worrying immediately about what would happen when those two left, too. Andre Ward and Adrien Broner are both elite talents and nice draws, but we still don't know if they can ascend to the financial heights of Pacquiao or Marquez. Saul Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. are outrageous draws and nice talents, although we still don't know if they have the talent to carry them to the top of the sport for any prolonged period of time. Between those men, someone will likely emerge to take over for Pacquiao and Mayweather.
If this is the end for Pacquiao, it could not have been a better ride. He's given us so many of those images of the kind I mentioned before, that are seared into the mind: that "Oh, shit, we're watching the birth of a star" display against Barrera; the scary knockout of Hatton; the wars with Morales; the toppling of the odds against De La Hoya; even the awkward performances of "Sometimes When We Touch." Saturday, he was part of another one of those memories. It's a devastating loss, for sure, and his fans no doubt are morose today. It wasn't the part he wanted, or that his fans wanted. But that's the way gunslingers like Pacquiao often go down: pistols blazing. They wouldn't be who they were, for good and ill, or who we love, otherwise.
(Amazing photo of the knockout moment by Julia Jacobson of the AP, via.)
The Memo is in. This is a victory for Heredia more so than Marquez. War, Angeeeeeelllllllllllll!!!! lmfao
Good article. My question is why would Marquez hire Heredia in the first place? Does he have any expertise as a strength coach for boxers? Marquez knew his rep and the heavy baggage he was carrying so is he that good of a coach that it was worth it? I like both fighters and think it's a shame that these doubts have come up.
Well said, Tim. Other articles I've read don't even come close to how you've approached this, and I love how you summarized your piece with the history of Pacquiao. As you said, it was one hell of a ride but we knew this day would come. Pacquiao has given us everything and he has nothing more to prove.
once that egg cracks, its broken....you have to scramble those eggs. theres no more putting it in the refridgerator
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Excellent piece, Tim. As a Pacman fan, I was shell-shocked by the brutality of the punch. Dismay was my initial reaction but as Pacman lay motionless, I feared the worst just as I felt in Hatton's case. As much as we can hope that such trauma will not manifest in Pacman's senior years, I know it will to some degree. With that said, if there ever was a sport where rigorous PED testing should be mandated, it is boxing simply because of its violent nature. With track and field, swimming, cycling, et al, all that is damaged is the athlete's ego and earning potential. With boxing, the brain gets damaged, or death as in a Korean boxer's case. Three things I believe should be put in place 1) Random blood testing with variable detectors designed by the best biochemists 2) Convicted or self-confessed PED purveyors such as Heredia and Conte should be banned from the sport of boxing, and 3) Automatic two-year banishment for boxers testing positive.
I congratulate Marquez on the convincing win but with Heredia as his S&C trainer, I can see how suspicions of Marquez' PED use are in boxing chatter.
You never fail to put into words the beauty of the sport. There are so many things that came along with that fight last Saturday, and you covered each and every one of them with great just. The fall of Pacquiao unfortunately came along the great heights that he dared achieve. Similarly, with Marquez's devastating win comes the great risk he chose to carry in associating himself to a self-pledged sports criminal. Pacquiao having nothing to prove might be a great understatement, but that will be the hardest reality for him to accept since that same urgency to disprove was the same fuel that powered him into greatness. Great article Tim.
Beautiful article. This type of sports journalism is what I remember reading as a kid. Few and far between these days, where a sense of gratitude and truth is taken away. On a very humanistic level, Pacquiao is what makes sports "larger than life". He's well deserving of a properly reflective piece like this and so much more. Much appreciated.
What I would like for Pacquiao for 2013.
Fight Bradley again in April (less money unfortunately) and get his belt back.
Then challenge Marquez back by November or December, NO BELT, just for lost GLORY. But, Is it necessary?. Or its simply good for business. I am not really interested on a 5th fight, but if it happens, then so be it.
Then retire with the WBC belt
Thruth is, after his fights with,,, Cotto (broken eardrum), Clottey (he's more beaten up although he won), Margarito (i suspect a broken rib or even a cracked jaw due to intensity of Margarito punches but of course no one would say it), Mosley being one of the strongest punchers in Welterweight division, and his last fight with Marquez where everyone could easily see Marquez had gotten bigger and stronger, I already thinks (suspect) he is a damaged goods. No boxer of Pacquiao's frame (quite diminutive for a welterweight) could simply endure all of those punches from a heavier person without getting some damage somehow. I guess it finally took its toll on him.
There is only one thing I could say for Manny Pacquiao, THANK YOU for making us Filipinos proud.
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@KrisEdisonUlandayHe's racked up the punishment, all right. Wouldn't be surprised if it took its toll.
The whole sport owes Manny thanks...
It is history re-written itself indeed as I for one now losing interest for a Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight due to what has happened. Good for Marquez to finally achieve his goal but I hope that he really did it naturally as he had been saying. It would have been more believable if he does not have Angel Heredia on his side but that is an argument not for us but for people who runs this business. For Manny Pacquiao, as I have been a loyal fan of him since 2001, he should get back up where he fall. He should not retire like this, a fight or two with both "W" should be better that retiring with that big KO that will haunt his memories forever. If he retires now, Marquez will proudly boast forever that he was the one who sent Pacquiao to retirement and that is not a good feeling for a warrior like Pacquiao.
By the way, Tim, i just love the way you wrote this article, feels more poetically written than being reported.
@KrisEdisonUlanday Ha, it was neither reported nor poetic, but I appreciate the compliment.
I wouldn't mind seeing Pacquiao taking a kind of easy retirement fight before he goes.
this article helped me with my "grieving process" Thanks.. you write objectively but with a pen that knows the heart of the audience.... Thanks man.
I think the "definng disgusting" moment here is probably more along the lines of boxing being a disgusting bloodsport that leaves its participants crippled both mentally and physically, but I suppose drug use is somehow significant.
Interesting. I'll concede that I have some qualms about boxing's effect on its participants, but not on THIS level. Think about this:
Pacquiao was so impoverished that he ran away from home after his hungry father killed and ate his dog. He made a "living" selling cigarettes and donuts on the street. When he turned to boxing, he was so starving that he had to put weights in his pockets on the scale to get above 105 pounds.
Now he's a congressman and one of the richest athletes on the planet.
I don't want Pacquiao to be crippled physically or mentally. But even if he ends up that way, wouldn't he have had a better life through boxing than otherwise?
Oh, and what brought you to a boxing site, if you feel that way? I'm just curious, honestly.
This is a beautifully written article! You expressed in written words the thoughts still reeling in my head. Thank you!
Damn! I am speechless, empty and still shocked. It was the best all-out-war, heartbreaking fight up to now. As far as good boxing fights, Pacquiao and Marquez are the best compared to Mayweather's fights.
@guillybravo1 True. Mayweather's fights have been a little more interesting of late, but yeah, Pacquiao and Marquez tend to go to war.
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Surely these two couldn't impress more in the 4th fight than they had hitherto...surely not. Surely not my arse.
Marquez, with those two big right hands finding their mark after expertly moving Pac into position, branded into this observer's episodic memory for eternity.
And perhaps even more profoundly, Pac's sporting behaviour post fight, congratulating the victor and his cohorts in a moving sign of humility. And he by virtue of that, seeming to occupy a rarefied space higher and larger than the sport itself, a space that very few in any game could dream of occupying. A humble sporting honest human with no malice in his heart.
@gavaniacono I never would've guessed that the 4th fight would end up being the best oone. And yeah, Pac's always been a great sportsman. It's one of the reasons we like him.
Come on man don't be sore. Unless and until anything's proven we have to assume it was straight up.
@dsanthtwngs88 @JuanChicanitos I suspect it too but then unless and until anything's proven... Fans of Pacquiao like myself have to show class as he did in the ring. Even when you lose, you can still be great...
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Amidst the despair and reactionary anger and accusations of Pacquiao fans (of whom I consider myself), the gleeful gibes of Mayweather fans, the justified cries of vindication and not so justified diminishing of past fights from Marquez fans, and the frenzy that engulfs the sport right now... you get it done man. No bullshit. In a sport as subjective as this, as much about the minutiae as the monumental- where discernment is key- when I find someone who has sense I feel lucky. I've been tormenting myself in an excercise of futility all day trying to do what you've just done on the message boards of youtube. I know. I know. I'm of the mind that Pacquiao, because of who he fought and when and the way he's conquered the divisions, and the way Mayweather has conducted the tail end of his career, will go down all time as better than May, but I could definitely be wrong. Your thoughts?
@dsanthtwngs88 Thanks so much! Yeah, it's pretty dismal out there sometimes.
Pacquiao is better all-time for me than Mayweather and while it's gotten closer in recent years, it's still not all that close. Floyd COULD'VE been better but he passed on too many opportunities. Think about if he had been the guy to beat Margarirto, Cotto, PWill, Casamayor and others he didn't fight.
And yes, your article is one of the most insightful articles regarding Pacquiao-MArquez 4. Keep on punching, Tim!
Strategy-wise, no doubt that Marquez was the better man. He just outwitted Pacman. But I was amazed by Marquez's sudden leap in punching power. And so I'm thinking two things: 1) 360 degree turnaround in training 2) "Other" means.
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@BongBanal Both are possible, but the perfect punch also helps. And thanks for the kind words.
@spacetits @fidgetyacolyte Yeah, Tim's is excellent, as is Tobin on TheCruelestSport, Kieran's 5 Things on espn, 1 or 2 more I'm forgetting.
Fantastic piece of writing Mr. Starks. Don't know if you remember but we sat together at the 2010 BWAA Awards Night in New York. I said it then and I will say it now...you are one hell of a writer.
it is time for pacman to retire he's not young any more, more damage could be get if he insists to fight....
