Pacquiao bloodied but unbowed

It's only March, but a major contender for the Fight of the Year could be Saturday's rematch between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao.

The second installment of the Mexican-Filipino War at Mandalay Bay Events Center was a classic, with Pacquiao scoring a crucial third-round knockdown of Marquez and winning a hard-fought 12-round split decision to capture Marquez's WBC super featherweight title.

Judges Duane Ford and Tom Miller had it 115-112 and 114-113 for Pacquiao, and Jerry Roth had Marquez winning 115-112.

"It was a tough fight," said Pacquiao, who improved to 46-3-2. "I wasn't sure if I was ahead, but I always treat the final round as the most important."

Marquez was the more effective fighter, landing a higher percentage of punches, but Pacquiao withstood the barrage and landed enough to sway the judges.

As was the case in their first meeting in 2004, controversy again swirled as far as the Marquez camp was concerned. The initial meeting had one judge's scorecard calling the fight even. On Saturday, Marquez thought Ford and Miller got it wrong by scoring it in Pacquiao's favor.

"I don't like the decision," said Marquez, whose record fell to 48-4-1. "I feel I am still the champion. It's not about one round. I connected with more punches, more jabs, and I feel like I won. The people are the best judge, and the people were booing him. I won."

Saturday's win, which was likely Pacquiao's final fight at 130 pounds, paves the way for a Pacquiao vs. David Diaz fight for Diaz's WBC lightweight belt. Diaz took a 10-round majority decision Saturday, beating Ramon Montano.

When asked if there would be a third fight between himself and Marquez, Pacquiao shook his head.

"I don't think so," he said. "This business is over."

Pacquiao entered the ring a minus-235 betting favorite, but Marquez had the majority of the sellout crowd of 11,061 on his side.

Unlike their first encounter when he was knocked down three times, Marquez remained on his feet in the opening round. He actually had Pacquiao in trouble.

But with 20 seconds remaining in the third round, Pacquiao sent Marquez down with a combination right jab and left cross to the chin.

Pacquiao nearly knocked down Marquez a second time in the final seconds, but the Mexican star remained on his feet. He fought back valiantly, beating Pacquiao to the punch with an effective right jab.

Marquez did the better work in the fifth and sixth rounds. But in the seventh, with a cut over Marquez's right eye from a head butt, Pacquiao tagged Marquez with a big left and had him backing up.

However, Marquez returned the favor in the eighth, reopening the cut over Pacquiao's right eye he initially had slashed in the fourth round and then punishing him with a series of body shots that had Pacquiao wincing in pain.

Pacquiao motioned to Marquez to "bring it," and Marquez was more than happy to comply. But Pacquiao came out firing in the ninth round and nailed Marquez with a big left. It was more of the same in the 10th as Pacquiao was unloading from all angles, but Marquez hung tough.

"He moved around a lot more this time, and he jabbed a lot more," Pacquiao said. "I thought I was in control, but when he cut my eye in the fourth round, it made it more difficult for me to see."

Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, said he had a lot of concerns waiting for the scores to be announced.

"It was a close fight, but we came back in the end," Roach said. "It could have gone either way. Manny didn't cut off the ring the way he should have, but Marquez may have had something to do with that."

Pacquiao now turns his attention to Diaz, who admitted Saturday's win wasn't his best performance. But he's glad to move on to fight Pacquiao in late June at Mandalay Bay.

"I felt sloppy. I was trying too hard for a knockout," Diaz said. "The 10 rounds of hard work were good for me."

In the WBO featherweight title fight, reigning champion Steven Luevano retained his belt, surviving a fourth-round knockdown to score a 12-round unanimous decision over Terdsak Janedang.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@ reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2913.