Starch Madness Mascot: Starchibald Spudd

A series of articles appreciating some of the best knockouts in combat sports

Welcome back to Starch Madness! For this installment, the spotlight will shine on one of the most prolific rivalries in the history of boxing. The sport of boxing is already riddled with sagas of magnificent fighters going head to head in the ring multiple times such as Ali x Frazier (fought 3 times), Leonard x Duran (fought 3 times), Tyson x Holyfield (fought 2-ish times), and probably a lot more. The knockout that will be the subject of this article will be coming from the rivalry between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez who met each other in the ring a total of four times.

Today’s knockout came in their fourth fight, which took place on December 8th, 2012. In an already heated rivalry, Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez were set to battle for the WBO’s “Champion for the Decade” belt. The rivalry between the two fighters was spread over eight whole years slow-roasting in a brick oven of controversial razor-close decisions.

Their first fight in May 2004 ended in polarizing fashion with a split draw with one judge scoring the fight for Pacquiao, one scoring the fight for Marquez, and the other judge scoring it as a draw.

Their second fight occurred in March 2008. Manny was declared the victor by split decision leaving more questions about who’s the better of the two men.

They clashed for the third time both of them seeking to put their rivalry to a momentous end in November 2011. However, this bout was also scored a close decision for Manny with two judges scoring the fight in Manny’s favor and one judge scoring it as a draw. This outcome, once again, left the fans with no concrete answers about this star-crossed matchup of legendary boxers.

However, as fate would have it, Pacquiao and Marquez would meet a fourth time a little over a year later from the third fight in December 2012 at the MGM Grand in Nevada. Manny Pacquiao would enter the fight awash in the public adoration and esteem that he’d carry with him for the remainder of his career even to this day as a living legend. Manuel was all but counted out for this fight as many thought it’d go the way of their many other scraps with Manny getting the nod from the judges, perhaps even unanimously this time. However, things would go on to end a bit differently.

In the first couple rounds, the two fighters chose to forgo the patient pattycake of jabs and picking on each other from the outside as they’d been acquainted with each other’s style multiple times. They lunged in and out trying to get on the inside and soften the other’s defense a little bit, but neither being able to create any meaningful damage to the other.

In the third and fourth, things heated up quite a bit. They began to open each other up, scoring decent two and three punch combinations on the inside. They danced in a way that showed their familiarity with one another as neither of them were afraid to take risks to land good shots. Marquez landed a tremendous overhand right that caught Manny flush sending him to his back on the canvas (a place very unfamiliar for Manny), but he popped right back up ready for action.

This forced Pacquiao to come back way more aggressive in the fourth. He became the aggressor forcing a lot of the action and leading their exchanges in the fourth round, yet Marquez remained defensively sound blocking and countering exceptionally well against Pac-Man.

The fifth round began with both men tentatively picking at each other with jabs for a few seconds. It wasn’t long before Pacquiao timed a perfect cross as Marquez moved in which dropped him just enough for the ref to start counting for the knockdown. Marquez recovered and Pacquiao poured on his offense until the round ended (most likely in his Pac’s favor).

The fateful sixth round came and the pair met in the middle to resume their dance. Pacquiao’s rhythm showed up more and more effectively as he was able to get in and out delivering phantom-like punishment leaving Marquez bloodied because he was just a tad too slow to respond defensively by this point.

Pacquiao seemingly hopped into the driver seat for this round as he battered Marquez with exchanges landing whenever he chose. Pacquiao commanded the action toward the end of the round scoring a four-punch combo in the last ten seconds of the round. Pacquiao (probably due to hubris from his success in the previous round) lunged in for one last punch to end the round on his terms, but Marquez was ready for it, loading a right hand brimming with the frustration of falling short multiple times over the span of eight years, and uncorked it on Pacquiao’s chin with literally one second left. Pacquiao was floored falling face-first into the canvas with his body fully relaxed and limp, no ten-count necessary.

This would be the first time since 1999 that Manny Pacquiao would lose via stoppage (and the first time he’d been knocked unconscious)…and what a stoppage. This knockout was voted “Knockout of the Year” by several publications, most notably, The Ring magazine. It would also be the first victory scored by Juan Manuel Marquez in his almost decade long rivalry with Manny Pacquiao, and it would be the most decisive one (via faceplant KO).

This momentous outcome begs the question, what does this victory mean in the grand scheme of things for this particular boxing rivalry? On paper, it could be declared that Manny Pacquiao is better because he won more of the fights between them, but Marquez was the only one to score a clear cut decisive win. Manny may have won the war with the volume of victories he has over Marquez and his historical career, but you can be damn certain that Marquez won THIS battle.