By Gerardo Granados: A great trilogy full of action but also full of controversy; it seems like it won’t matter who the fight judges are because if the fight is close they will be criticized once again. In the first fight an error made by one judge ended with a draw decision but the fans must remember that Manny Pacquiao hit Juan Manuel Marquez while he was down so one point should have been deducted but the referee did not even warn Manny.

On his third fight Marquez was the clear winner but sports writers all around couldn’t agree on who won the fight, some saw Pacquiao win others correctly saw Juan Manuel win and the few saw them draw the fight. Not even in the Philippines there was a consensus on Pacquiao´s victory and local sports analyst saw Marquez win.

A friend of mine believes that if the fight is close the controversy will again confront boxing fans because of the boxing style preferences of fans and fight judges. If you score the fight you know the rules to score under the must ten system but it might be inevitable to give more valor according to your boxing taste. From effective aggression, overall skills, tactics, adjustment, counter punching, ring generalship, defense, accuracy, timing, clean punching, power punches and speed which are the most important for the reader? Some sports writers said that Marquez did not win because he´s a counter puncher and Pacquiao was the one pushing the fight; that´s a poor argument if so then Floyd Mayweather Jr. should not have defeated Oscar de la Hoya and Pernell Whitaker should not have draw against Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and both should have lost.

Maybe the fight will end with a thrilling and dramatic knockout that will avoid any controversial ruling by the fight judges, but I believe the fourth will be decided once again on the score cards. If Pacman goes for the KO he could risk himself to be tagged by the accurate counter punching of Marquez who has been able to hurt and make Pacquiao more cautious when he attacks. On the other hand if Juan Manuel goes for the KO he could end knocked down as it happen in the first round of their trilogy, when Marquez seemed to be unaware of Manny´s power and fought him too confident.

I believe the fourth will end once again on a controversial judge decision. I´ll pick Marquez to win by split decision due his relentless determination to win. If the fight ends by KO then Pacquiao might have the edge to win within 5 rounds, he has been able to knock down Marquez several times, but has not been able to finish him off and to do so he must regain his killer instinct that since his fight with Antonio Margarito was lost.

Both fighters want to win by KO, they both want to increase the tempo of the fight, they also aim to throw and connect more punches and to close the fight even stronger; that is a good plan but let’s not forget that both lions are one year older already and Kronos could have decided the winner without the need to throw a single punch. The key for victory for both veterans might be the ideal weight at fight night, maybe both will try to be around the 144 pounds to be fast; it will be interesting to see them at the weigh inn.

It was a shameful comment made by trainer Freddie Roach, who threatened to kiss Marquez a** if Juan Manuel has muscled up cleanly. Being Pacquiao accused of using performance enhancement drugs in the past without any solid evidence Roach should think before stating such defamatory thing. Maybe it was just a strategy to distract Juan Manuel, but if Marquez come´s clean then Freddie should just apologize.

Ladies and gentleman lets get ready to enjoy one good fight between two of the top ten pound for pound best. Be ready to score the fight and to decide who the winner will be.