Should Manny Pacquiao Give Juan Manuel Marquez One Last Shot?

Mexican boxing idol Juan Manuel Marquez has been chasing Manny Pacquiao since 2008 and begging the Filipino boxer for one last fight. In his latest comment, Pacquiao said Marquez is too old at 37.

In his call for a trilogy with the pound-for-pound king, Marquez argues he felt cheated when judges favored Pacquiao during their last two fights. Marquez first fought Pacquiao in 2004 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas which ended in a draw. Marquez said he should have won the fight had it not been for the judges scoring errors.

The final scores were 115-110 for Márquez, 115-110 for Pacquiao, and 113-113. One of the judges (who scored the bout 113-113) later admitted to making an error on the scorecards, because he had scored the first round as "10-7" in favor of Pacquiao instead of the standard "10-6" for a three-knockdown round. For his part, Pacquiao said he knocked down Marquez three times in the first round and went on to dominate the later rounds. In contrast, Pacquiao has not been knocked down by Marquez in their last two fights. Almost four years later, Manny Pacquiao granted Juan Manuel Marquez his most requested rematch which took place at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 15, 2008. In the second encounter, Marquez lost to Pacquiao via a split decision. Again, Marquez disputed the decision of the referees saying he landed more punches than Pacquiao based on Compubox scoring which showed Marquez landing at the rate of 21% against Pacquiao's 14%. The third round knockdown suffered by Marquez proved to be the difference in the scoring as the rest of the rounds that followed were mostly even. Despite Richard Schaefer's offer of a $6 million guarantee for another shot at Pacquiao, the trilogy failed to happen as the Filipino boxer went on to campaign in the welterweight division. After facing and schooling Juan Diaz for a convincing unanimous decision last Saturday, Marquez immediately called on Manny Pacquiao to remind him that a third match may now be possible. But Pacquiao, in his latest comment on the trilogy issue, said Marquez is too old at 37. Besides he said he floored Marquez four times already and there is nothing more to prove.