When Manny Pacquiao (55-5-1) was KOed by Juan Manuel Marquez in the sixth round of their fight last December 8, 2012, and many were led to believe that the Pacman has nothing left up his sleeve to fight again the future. But watching the fight objectively, it is difficult to say that the eight time world champion’s career is over.
The KO simply got him closer to rediscovering himself and renewing the fire and passion that he had for boxing when he was a younger, hungrier fighter.
First, it is clear that Marquez prepared to load his punches with more power. He knows that the only chance at defeating Pacquiao is to hurt him and knock him down with heavy punches. Marquez never out-boxed Pacquiao in the fourth fight. He (Marquez) focused on landing fewer shots but with heavier damage. Pacman can improve on this by setting up a good defense strategy and controlling himself against lunging forward recklessly towards Marquez all the time.
What many fans did not see is that Pacquiao already “solved” the other half of his problem with El Dinamita. Manny is able to win “chess match” boxing games against Marquez now. He can do this now by using more head movement, feinting, and stepping towards Marquez’s left side (as we saw in the fourth fight).
The only thing that Manny needs to correct is his defense. He should also show more respect for Marquez’s punching power, because clearly the Mexican is a bigger puncher now. If Pacquiao uses his head movement and feinting against Marquez in the fifth fight, as well as control his aggressiveness, he can win by slowly punishing Marquez with sharp shots that could make the Mexican bleed, swell, cut, and nose-broken.
The way for Pacquiao is to beat the Mexican slowly, without any hurry for a big KO punch to end the night.
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