Pacquiao is one of the most technically sound boxers in the game.

This is a long ass post so bear with me. At first this post was about something else. There was a thread that was brought up after Pac vs JMM II where people said an investigation should be launched because one of the judges gave the 12th round to Pacquiao. I remembered that when I watched the fight I also scored it clearly for JMM so I decided to go back and watch that round carefully since I just TIVO'd the fight on a replay.

It ended up taking me over 45 minutes to rewatch this one round. I watched every single exchange where punches landed at 1/15 slowmo, sometimes more than once. What I realised while doing this is that people who think Pacquiao has no skills and is 1-dimensional are on crack. Some people keep pushing this down our throats but its simply bull****.

Anyways below is the recap of the 12th and final round. Which in the end turned out to be a real tossup round between two extremely highly skilled boxers. The fact that they can still put out this kind of effort in the 12th is mind boggling.

So this is a slow mo description of all the significant exchanges in the round. Basically all the instances where significant punches landed and what those punches were. I really put alot of time and effort into it and I think that not only Pacquiao and MArquez fans will be able to enjoy it, but also any hardcore boxing fans.

2:33 Pacquiao leads in with a hard jab that snaps Marquez' head back. Marquez counters with a nice left hook/uppercut but misses as Pac leans back.

2:28 Marquez lands a nice right hand flush on Pacquiao behind a light jab to the body, Pacquiao tried to counter the jab with a right hook so when he lowered his right JMM caught him.

2:22 Pacquiao seems to land a big straight left to the body. You can hear the sound and it seems it landed under Marquez' guard but the camera angle is bad. There's a small chance it was blocked.

2:17 Marquez throws a 5 punch combo, the first 3 are blocked, but he ends it with a left hook to the body and a left uppercut that land clean.

Lampley says "Straight right hands from Marquez, two of them". Lampley really kissed Marquez' ass throughout the 12th round, which could very well have affected most people's scores.

1:58 Pacquiao throws a 5 punch combo, only the 2nd punch lands, a staight left to the body.

1:44 Marquez throws a lead right hand, Pacquiao ducks under it and lands a straight left to the body that lands. Marquez follows up with a short left uppercut to the body which lands as Pacquiao lands a big counter overhand left. Marquez then throws 2 right hands but both are blocked.
Lampley says "Good uppercut by Marquez, sets up a straight right hand" though Pacquiao clearly got the best of the exchange.

1:31 Marquez lunges with a jab that misses, and Pacquiao misses a counter right hook. Pacquiao comes back with a jab that misses, Marquez counters with a left hook followed by a straight right but both are cleanly blocked. They step back a little. Marquez comes in with a lead right hand followed by left uppercut which both land but not very flush. Marquez followed up those 2 punches with another right hand which hits the top Pacquiao's head just as Pacquiao counters with a short left cross which lands flush and clearly hurts Marquez.
the whole encounter lasted 4 seconds.
Lampley says "Solid shots by marquez and he ducks Manny Pacquiao's left"

1:24 Inside fighting. PAC throws 2 short left uppercuts. The first one is partially blocked. The second one lands flush as Marquez lands a counter right hand. Then Pacquiao steps back and lands a big right hook.

1:21 Pacqiuao throws a 1-2 Marquez ducks under it. Pacquiao throws a short right uppercut that lands but no damage. Marquez counters with a big left hook that lands.
Lampley says "Good left hand by Marquez."

1:18 Pacquiao jabs, feints the left hand. Marquez bites and counters with a left hookercut which PAC avoids and then PAC lands a hard jab over it. Then Pacquiao misses a huge overhand left but lands another jab that snaps Marquez' head back.
Lampley says "Now Pacquiao lands a solid shot but up to this point Marquez is winning the round."

1:06 Marquez throws a 1-2. Pacquiao blocks the jab and gets caught flush by the right hand and his head snaps back.


0:59 Pacquiao throws a 1-2 which Marquez blocks, he follows up his 1-2 with a right cross that lands as Marquez lands a counter left uppercut at the same time.

0:57 This exchange is simply too beautiful. Best of the entire round. Marquez throws a lead right which Pacquiao side steps. Then Pacquiao counters with a short right hook to the body which does little damage followed by a big left cross that Marquez ducks under and then a short right uppercut pops Marquez' head up. PAC follows up with a left but Marquez ducks under it and throws a big overhand right that Pacquiao ducks under himself and then Pac counters with a big overhand left of his own that lands as Marquez misses with a left uppercut. Marquez takes the punch and counters with another overhand right which lands as Pacquiao is moving back.
If you're a boxing purist, then watching this in slow mo will make you come in your pants. The whole thing lasts 3 seconds.

:52 Marquez does something simply beautiful here. He feints with the jab, PAC bites and counters with the right hook. Marquez blocks the hook with his left and lands a nice right uppercut which lands flush. Marquez follows up with a left uppercut but Pacquiao blocks it and then PAC lands a big counter left flush as Marquez misses with the followup overhand right.

:48 something is going on but its comepletely blocked by the ref bad camera angle

:42 Marquez throws a jab but Pacquiao has his left foot on the outside so he dodges the jab and times Marquez with a big lead left almost at the same time and lands flush. Beautiful

:25 Marquez leads with a 4 punch combo. Left uppercut which is blocked, right lands over it, then left uppercut and right hand again but both blocked.

:19 In this exchange noone lands any punches but i have to describe it cause its too amazing. Pacquiao gets his foot on the outside of Marquez and throws a jab. Marquez leans back onto his backfoot, avoids the jab, moves his front foot from the inside to the outside. Then JMM throws 1-2. Pacquiao blocks the jab with his right hand and turns his left shoulder to block the right.

:16 Pacquiao lands a solid jab and follows up with a left but MArquez ducks under it and puches Pacquiao back with his own left.

:10 Marquez lands a nice snappy jab

:08 Pacquiao leads with a left to the body. Marquez kind of ducks and blocks it. Pacquiao follows up with a right to the top of JMM's head. JMM then pulls up and as Pacquiao lands a left uppercut to JMM's chest which doesn't seem to do much damage, JMM lands a big overhand right that pushes PAC back.

:06 PAC lands a big jab that snaps Marquez' head back, follows up with a left that Marquez ducks under. Then as Marquez comes back with a counter overhand right, Pacquiao lands a right cross and steps back out of range.

:04 Marquez throws a 1-2 but Pac steps back out of range and counters with a right hook and a left hand which both land flush.

End of an epic fight.

I hope some of you enjoyed this post. I don't know if you can tell that as the round goes on and on I get more and more into it. Really I feel like i could watch this entire fight in slowmo and it would be a day well spent.

 

i did make mention of Marquez's footwork when it came into play, as in one of the examples (i think 0:19 or around there). As for footwork the fact is that in this fight Pacquiao more often than not got his foot on the outside of Marquez', or on the occasions where Marquez got his foot on the outside, Pacquiao instinctively jumps back.

Notice that I'm not saying that Pacquiao is more technically sound that Marquez. I recognize that Marquez has the edge here. And also Marquez is better at predicting what Pacquiao is gonna throw at him than the other way around. But the edge is very slight, and Pacquiao makes up for it with fast reflexes and movement. Basically Pacquiao can recover from a mistake more than Marquez due to his athleticism.

What I'm saying is that there are at most a handfull of fighters (a VERY small handfull) who are technically superior to Pacquiao.

If you read the analysis I don't see where I was biased it was basically punch by punch as shown on film in flow mo.


Please take note that i am NOT saying that Pac is technically superior to Marquez.