


All during the long buildup to their fourth meeting, Pacquiao promised that he was going to be more aggressive—that he was going to go for the knockout against the boxer known as El Dinamata, or Dynamite.

Pacquiao vs. Márquez



The Filipino icon took the first two rounds easily. Then, in the middle of the third frame, Márquez caught the Pacman in the web of his own furious attack and nailed him with a wide right. Pacquiao went down hard but got up, shook his head and charged forward again.

In the fifth round, Pacquiao was again punishing Márquez. Márquez was bloody, his nose was broken and midway through, Pacquiao knocked him down with a thunderous left.

Juan Manuel Márquez stepped away after knocking out Manny Pacquiao. Reuters

Right from the start of the next stanza, Pacquiao was recklessly firing away, closing in, intent on finishing his rival off. But at the very end of the round, Pacquiao backed Márquez to the ropes, missed with a left and, at the same moment, Márquez launched a right hand for the ages that detonated on Pacquiao's chin. Pacquiao went down, face forward, and didn't move for what seemed like a minute.

The largely Mexican crowd exploded with jubilation, but at the same time there was a palpable sense of concern as Pacquiao lay motionless on the canvas. Within a couple of minutes, though, Pacquiao was sitting on his stool and then talking with HBO commentator Larry Merchant. Ever gracious despite his deeply dazed state, Pacquiao even went over to congratulate his longtime rival.

On the eve of fight night, Hall of Famer Sugar Ray Leonard told me, "The best punch to use against a left-handed fighter [like Pacquiao] is to feint and then throw a wide right hook, instead of the straight right. They can't see that one coming."

Leonard was on the mark. Just before he went to the hospital for a CT scan Pacquiao confessed, "I got hit by a punch I didn't see." Did he ever.

For his part, an ecstatic but badly busted up Márquez commented: "I knew Manny could knock me out at any time. I threw the perfect punch."

It will take some time to identify the effects of Márquez's right on the boxing world. According to Top Rank's Bob Arum, a fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. remains a possibility, as does Pacquiao's retirement. Pacquiao is now 61 fights deep into his career and he has been in many a grueling battle. They take their toll.

But one thing is certain: Saturday was boxing at its best—an exotic, somewhat unnerving combination of brutality and beauty.