Boxing Result: Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez II

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Last night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, super featherweight Manny Pacquiao won the WBC title and completed his sweep of Mexico’s best lighter weight men with a close split decision victory over a very game Juan Manuel Marquez, who had climbed off the canvas four years ago to fight the Filipino to a draw at featherweight.

This time, Pacquiao entered the ring weighing 146 lb, having put on a full 16 pounds, or three weight classes, in the day since the weigh-in and he looked massive. Marquez himself had put on 11 pounds to enter the ring at 141 but looked much smaller than his opponent.

Early on, Marquez made Pacquiao look slow and overweight, using good footwork to maintain distance and ramming home sharp right hand counters whenever Pacquiao got close.

Pacquiao did have some success but Marquez looked to be timing his rival’s rushes to throw the straight power left hand very well, making the southpaw miss and go off balance time and time again.

But the early shutout for Marquez came crashing to a halt in the third when Pacquiao got in a perfect left hand counter to drop the Mexican hard when Marquez had decided to come inside for a heated exchange.

Marquez beat the count and made it through the rest of the round but it was the shot of confidence that Pacquiao needed and which would sustain him throughout the rest of the match.

The Mexico City man recovered and resumed his busier and more accurate punching but Pacquiao began to find a home for his left hand and whenever it landed, it jarred Marquez hard, largely winning rounds on the strength of a few of those each session.

Both men were cut in the eye area in the later rounds and while Pacquiao’s was largely controlled by his corner, Marquez was cut twice in the same area of the right eye, the second of which was a severe laceration that affected his performance.

As the bout wore on, Pacquiao seemed to have more in the tank but still only landed sporadically and was getting timed by the more accurate Marquez.

There was a good deal of tension awaiting the scores and Pacquiao was clearly relieved to take the split decision, winning two cards 115-112, 114-113 while Marquez was awarded the third, 112-115.

Marquez falls to 48-4-1 (35) and was bitterly disappointed after putting in a fine performance that could have just as easily have gone his way.

Pacquiao wins his seventh straight to climb to 46-3-2 (35) and will reportedly move into the lightweight division next to face either WBC titlist David Diaz or former unified champ Juan Diaz.

On the undercard, WBO Featherweight Champ Steven Luevano, 35-1 (15), defended his belt for the second time with a dominating southpaw jabfest over powerful Thai lefty Terdsak Jandaeng, 29-3 (19), to win by wide unanimous decision.

Luevano used his superior skills to avoid most of Jandaeng’s efforts, although the bull-like Thai did manage to connect in the fourth, dropping Luevano but ultimately lost all cards by wide margins, 119-108 and 118-108 twice.

Mexican bantam prospect Abner Mares, 16-0 (10), retained his WBO NABO belt for the second time with a second round stoppage of Philippine veteran Diosdado Gabi, 30-4-1 (21), while WBC Lightweight titlist David Diaz, 34-1-1 (17), survived a scare from Ramon Montano, 15-5-2 (1), to win a non-title eight rounder by majority decision.

At featherweight, Michael Farenas, 20-2-2 (18), won his ninth in a row by stopping tough journeyman Baudel Cardenas, 17-13-2 (6), in the third.