By Chris Williams: In a fight outcome that left virtually no one happy other than Pacquiao fans, WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) labored to a controversial 12 round majority decision on Saturday night against 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (53-6-1, 39 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final judges’ scores were all over the place with one scoring it a draw at 114-114 but the other two giving the decision to Pacquiao by the scores of 115-113, 116-112.

The 116-112 score was particularly ridiculous given that Marquez clearly appeared to win at least seven rounds and without any controversy whatsoever. Marquez was good enough to nick another two of the close rounds to win by a comfortable margin. However, I knew right off the bat before this fight that Marquez needed a knockout to win. Pacquiao is one of the top cash cows in boxing and when you have big money makers like him and Floyd Mayweather Jr., you’re just not going to be winning decisions against those guys if you’re not the same kind of money maker. We used to see that with Oscar De La Hoya, and now we’re seeing it with Pacquiao.

This was the third straight time against Marquez that Pacquiao has either gotten a draw or win in fights where Marquez appeared to win. It’s so sad. After tonight’s fight, Marquez left the ring without complaint and without giving an interview. He was truly a class individual by leaving without bad mouthing Pacquiao. He didn’t need to. The fans at ringside were booing like mad, many of them seemingly Filipino fans of Pacquiao, who weren’t happy seeing Pacquiao win a fight that Marquez did more than enough to get the win.

If you’re into monitoring punch stats it’s interesting to note that Pacquiao landed slightly more shots at 176 of 578 compared to Marquez’s 138 of 436. However, many of Pacquiao’s punches landed came in the last three rounds when he appeared to be far behind in the fight needing a knockout to win. He landed a lot of shots in those rounds but was totally dominated in rounds one through eight. I didn’t give Pacquiao a round until the 9th. He was getting drilled over and over again by left hooks, right hands and jabs from Marquez and seemed totally clueless what to do.

In other fights on the card:

Jose Benavidez Jr. UD 6 Samuel Santana
Dennis Laurente TKO 7 Ayi Bruce
Juan Carlos Burgos MD 10 Luis Cruz
Mike Alvarado TKO 10 Breidis Prescott
Timothy Bradley TKO 8 Joel Casamayor