By Chris Williams: I figured it would be a hard pill for a lot of Manny Pacquiao’s loyal boxing fans to swallow in how poor Manny looked in getting what many boxing fans see as a gift decision over Juan Manuel Marquez last Saturday night in winning by a 12 round majority decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A lot of professional fighters, writers and boxing fans saw Marquez as the winner of that fight, as do I. However, some of Pacquiao’s loving fans see Marquez as having cheated because he accidentally stepped on Pacquiao’s feet six or seven times during the 12 round bout. It’s very sad that these fans have desperately reached for this to help accept that their fighter got outsmarted by a more talented fighter. I hate to see people not accepting reality and grasping for straws and/or conspiracies to help explain why their hero failed miserably.

I mean if this is all it takes for a fighter to get the better of Pacquiao, stepping on his toes, than what does that tell you about Pacquiao? I can understand the weeping by Pacquiao’s fans if Marquez stepped on Pacquiao’s feet and knocked him out. But this was a 12 round bout and having your feet stepped on a half a dozen times during 12 rounds of action isn’t a good excuse for what happened to Pacquiao in the ring that night.

It’ sounds idiotic that I can’t believe that Pacquiao fans are clinging to this flimsy excuse for their man looking like a lost lamb out there with Marquez. Having his feet stepped on a few times isn’t why Pacquiao lost that fight. He lost because he got beat by a better man. Forget the gift decision by the judges, the real winner of that fight has already been acknowledged by the people, and no amount of crying about feet being stepped on or pointing to the Compu-box totals are going to convince boxing fans otherwise. The judges blew it, for whatever reason, and their judgment of the fight is an empty one, making them look bad.

It’s sad that so many of Pacquiao’s fans are looking for excuses like him having his feet stepped on a half a dozen times for an excuse why he looked so old against Marquez. I think Pacquiao is starting to age and he was finally put in with another good fighter after all these years of easy set-up fights by his promoter Bob Arum. I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, because Arum couldn’t continue to put Pacquiao in with his in house fighters forever. He had to eventually match him against someone that’s actually good and not shot to pieces.