Wall Street Journal: Back and Fourth They Go

By Gordon Marino

For much of boxing history, multiple meetings between contenders were common fare. Jake La Motta and Sugar Ray Robinson fought each other six times, enough for La Motta to crack, "I fought Sugar so often he almost gave me diabetes." Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, Joey Giardello and Dick Tiger, Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott, among others, fought four times.

Today major fights are less frequent and the promotional lead-ins much longer, so fistic trilogies and tetralogies are very rare. Nonetheless, as HBO analyst Larry Merchant observed, "Sometimes too much of a good thing is a good thing."

Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, two of the best boxers of their generation, will exchange punches again Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. They've already had three grueling bouts. This will be their fourth.

The Pacquiao vs. Marquez saga has been a good thing both for boxing fans and the box office. According to Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank Promotions, the last battle between these two diminutive giants garnered 1.3 million pay-per-view buys.

In their 2004 fight, Marquez (54-6-1, 39 knockouts) visited the canvas three times in the first round but the ever-resilient "El Dinamita" regrouped and managed a draw. Pacquiao 54-4-2, 38 knockouts) eeked out controversial split decisions in their 2008, and 2011 meetings. Marquez vehemently insists, "I won all three fights."

Marquez's resolve to beat Pacquiao verges on an obsession. Recently, the Mexican icon emphasized that getting a win over his rival is "very, very important. I have this opportunity and the victory will be mine on Dec. 8 and I will be able to retire with a victory over Manny Pacquiao."

When they met in 2004 it was at 126 pounds, but this collision will be take place at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds. At bottom, the principals in this bout are Pacquiao's uniquely concussive left hand and Marquez's counter-right. At various times, Pacquiao has come close to turning Marquez's lights out with his bullet of a left. Neverthless, Marquez has always had more success than anyone in answering Pacquiao's power shot with own punishing straight right, which he sometimes manages to chase with a left hook or uppercut.

When pressed as to how he will avoid the counter right this Saturday, Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach responds, "By being aggressive and keeping Marquez backing up." Roach continued, "When we go back and look at the tape at what worked and what didn't, it is clear that Manny did his best when he was dictating the pace and keeping busy, using his speed."

Longtime pound-for-pound stalwart, Roy Jones Jr. concurs: "Manny has to attack, get Marquez to counter and then counter his counter." But with a sharp shooter like Marquez "aggressive and busy" are easier to talk about in press conferences than to execute in the squared circle.

For all the aggression that these two talk of conjouring, both are gun-shy of boxing judges. Pacquiao and his team were appalled by a split-decision loss to Timothy Bradley in June, in which Pacquiao landed more blows and did more damage despite looking noticeably slower. Moreover, there is a perception that the Pacman got a gift in his last fight with Marquez, so Freddie Roach is plain: "Manny needs a knockout to win this one."

True to Roach's prescription, Pacquiao is bringing the heavy leather in training. Roach said, "Manny has knocked his sparring partners down three or four times already. He hasn't done that since the Cotto camp." Ray Beltran, Pacquiao's sparring mate for almost a decade, remarked, "Manny always hits hard but this time around when we are sparring, he doesn't take any breaks. There is no laying on the ropes."

Convinced that he has been thrice robbed in his bouts with Pacquiao, Marquez believes that his victory would have to be decisive. He, no less than Pacquiao, is promising an uptake in fury. "I am going to be aggressive in this fight," said Marquez. "I won't go for the knockout right away, but if I get the opportunity for the knockout I will go for one."

The WSJ: Punching Up the Numbers

In the fracas over Manny Pacquiao's loss to Timothy Bradley, many will turn to the punch stats to justify their outrage. Promoter Bob Arum is so furious about the decision that he is demanding an investigation into the scoring before he will consider a rematch. Nonetheless, the way fans score a fight these days is surely impacted by the numbers that come up on the screen at each round's end.

Bob Canobbio, who founded the CompuBox system in 1985 and has tallied shots on more than 4,000 fights, insists that the numbers, which the judges have no access to, tell the story 90% of the time. Canobbio has a six-person team. Members "start out counting punches on tapes and in the undercards of fights." Canobbio checks their numbers against his own.

There are two scorers for every bout, one on each fighter, otherwise "counting punches is impossible." Asked if he verifies his figures against the replay, Canobbio said, "No, I go back just to watch the fight but don't second-guess myself with the counts."

"The most difficult bouts are those with a lot of infighting, but there was little of this on Saturday," Cannobbio said. "It was very easy to count punches."

Canobbio maintains that Pacquiao-Bradley was one of the bouts in which the numbers were definitive. "Bradley threw more punches," he said, "but Pacquiao landed 94 more." More important, Pacquiao connected with 82 more power punches. According to the CompuBox system, "Any punch that is not a jab is counted as a power punch."
— Gordon Marino

The WSJ: Ringside Announcer Mario Lopez Slams Pacquiao-Bradley Decision

Celebrity host Mario Lopez, an announcer on the international broadcast of this weekend’s Pacquiao-Bradley fight, took to Twitter following the controversial split-decision to blast the judges.

Bradley shocked the boxing world with a majority decision over reigning champ Pacquiao that was criticized by many boxing fans and experts.

“I’m so disgusted. The JUDGES need to be drug tested! What fight were they watching?” Lopez tweeted. “…Pacquiao simply outclassed him. Wasn’t even close in my eyes. Unbelievable. So disappointed in my sports. Boxing is killing me.”

Keith Kaiser, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The tweets come as Lopez and filmmaker Bert Marcus prepare to release “Champs,” a documentary about how boxing inspires both professional and amateur fighters to overcome obstacles in their lives. Both Lopez and Marcus said this weekend that the Pacquiao fight would be a major blow to the sport.

“We have a whole section in the film about how no other sport in America has taken such a big fall. Boxing is really the only sport that has digressed, when you think about it,” Marcus said. “Saturday was really the icing on the cake for that. Boxing had changed the course of America in terms of the civil rights movement and other historical examples, but now it seems to be its own worst enemy.”

Lopez, a star of the show “Extra” and a popular ringside boxing announcer, has sparred with boxing greats such as Oscar De La Hoya and even once suffered a cracked skull at the hands of one opponent.

Marcus and Lopez are now in discussions with several distributors about a theatrical release for “Champs.”