Pacquiao vs Márquez IV, 2012: After Three Disputed Decisions, One Punch With a Second Left

For eight years and thirty-six rounds, Juan Manuel Márquez and Manny Pacquiao fought each other to a standstill on paper and an argument everywhere else: a draw, a split decision and a majority decision, none of which settled anything. On 8 December 2012, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the fourth meeting produced the one result no judge could touch. With a single second left in the sixth round, Márquez landed a counter right hand and Pacquiao fell face-first to the canvas.

2004: Three Knockdowns and a Draw

The rivalry began at featherweight on 8 May 2004, at the same MGM Grand Garden Arena where it would end. Márquez, born in Iztacalco in Mexico City in 1973, held the WBA and IBF belts, and The Ring's featherweight championship was also on the line. Pacquiao made the opening round a disaster for him, putting him on the floor three times in the first three minutes.

Márquez survived, adjusted and spent most of the remaining rounds outboxing the Filipino southpaw. The judges could not agree: one scored it 115-110 for Márquez, one 115-110 for Pacquiao, and the third had it level at 113-113. The draw carried a footnote that would follow the series for years. Judge Burt A. Clements later acknowledged that he had marked the first round 10-7 for Pacquiao rather than the 10-6 a three-knockdown round normally earns. One more point on his card would have given Pacquiao the win.

2008: One Knockdown Decides a Split Decision

Almost four years passed before the rematch on 15 March 2008 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, by then at super featherweight with Márquez's WBC title at stake. The fight was close and bloody. Pacquiao was cut in the fourth round and suffered a split cheek in the eighth, while Márquez was opened up near his right eye by a clash of heads in the seventh, according to the wire report carried by Arab News.

The decisive moment came in the third round, when a Pacquiao left sent Márquez down. That single knockdown proved to be the margin. Duane Ford scored it 115-112 for Pacquiao, Jerry Roth 115-112 for Márquez, and Tom Miller 114-113 for Pacquiao. The Associated Press had its own card at 114-113 for Márquez, and when ESPN.com polled three of its boxing writers on the first three fights before the fourth bout, all three scored the 2008 contest for the Mexican.

2011: Boos, Beer and a Majority Decision

By the time they met again, on 12 November 2011, Pacquiao had climbed through the weights and held the WBO welterweight title. The bout was set at a catchweight of 144 pounds. Once again he pressed Pacquiao into a twelve-round puzzle with no clear solution.

Judge Robert Hoyle scored it 114-114, Dave Moretti 115-113 for Pacquiao and Glenn Trowbridge 116-112 for Pacquiao, a majority decision. The arena turned hostile. Spectators booed while Pacquiao spoke with commentator Max Kellerman, and some threw food, beer and ice toward the ring, with one can striking a ringside writer. The Ring's readers later voted it the Robbery of the Year for 2011. CompuBox numbers favoured Pacquiao in total punches landed, which only sharpened the divide between the statistics and what many in the crowd believed they had seen.

A Fourth Fight Nobody Could Avoid

Pacquiao entered 2012 still the bigger attraction, but his aura took a hit on 9 June, when Timothy Bradley was awarded a split decision over him at the MGM Grand for the WBO welterweight title. Two judges scored it 115-113 for Bradley and one 115-113 for Pacquiao. The verdict ended a 15-fight winning streak and was itself widely disputed; promoter Bob Arum told reporters he had never been so ashamed to be associated with the sport, as Al Jazeera reported.

Both men still believed they had beaten the other three times, and the fourth fight was made at welterweight. Pacquiao weighed 147 pounds and Márquez 143. Neither man's title was at stake. Reported purses differed slightly by source: Wikipedia lists Pacquiao at 26 million dollars, while Yahoo Sports wrote that he would earn at least 25 million; both sources put Márquez's guarantee at 6 million dollars plus a share of the pay-per-view revenue. Márquez arrived noticeably more muscular than in previous fights, a change Yahoo Sports remarked on in its report.

Round Three: Pacquiao Goes Down for the First Time

A sold-out house, put at 16,348 by Agence France-Presse, filled the Garden Arena, with Mitt Romney, Magic Johnson and 50 Cent among the faces at ringside according to Yahoo Sports. In the third round, Márquez threw a looping right over the top of Pacquiao's guard and dropped him. It was the first time in four fights that Márquez had put Pacquiao on the canvas.

Round Five: The Momentum Swings Back

Pacquiao answered the way he had in 2004 and 2008. In the fifth round his straight left found Márquez and sent him down, and the pressure that followed hurt the Mexican further. Later in the round a right hook buckled his knees, according to the Wikipedia account of the fight. Márquez's face was soon a mess of blood around his nose and mouth; AFP reported afterwards that he had suffered a broken nose and a possible concussion.

After five rounds, every judge had Pacquiao ahead by a single point, 47-46, a detail reported by both Yahoo Sports and The National.

Round Six: One Second Left on the Clock

Márquez said afterwards that he could sense Pacquiao coming to finish him in those rounds and expected him to leave openings as he did, as quoted by The National. In the closing seconds of the sixth, Pacquiao double-feinted a jab and moved in. Márquez fired a short counter right hand that met him flush on the chin as he moved forward.

Pacquiao fell face-down and did not move. Referee Kenny Bayless did not bother to count; the official time was 2:59 of round six. On the HBO broadcast, Roy Jones Jr. shouted to his broadcast partner that Pacquiao was not getting up. Wikipedia's account puts the time until Pacquiao was revived at two minutes and twenty seconds, while The National described him lying motionless for about two minutes before his team got him to his feet.

What Each Man Said

Márquez summed up the moment simply. "I threw the perfect punch," he said, as reported by Yahoo Sports. He told AFP that this was a victory over Pacquiao that left no room for doubt, an obvious reference to the three decisions that had gone the other way or nowhere at all. He also credited his camp, explaining that the counter right and a change of rhythm had been drilled in training.

Pacquiao was gracious. "I got hit by a punch I didn't see," he said, in words carried by both AFP and Yahoo Sports, and he admitted he had been caught with his hand down. Trainer Freddie Roach told AFP his fighter had become careless. Pacquiao also said he would be willing to fight Márquez a fifth time.

The Verdict of the Year

The fight drew a reported 1.15 million pay-per-view buys. The Ring named it both its 2012 Fight of the Year and Knockout of the Year, according to Wikipedia. Pacquiao later went on to beat Brandon Rios, Timothy Bradley in a rematch and Chris Algieri.

For Márquez, after a draw and two losses on the cards, the series finally had a result that needed no interpretation. Whether he had deserved one or more of the earlier decisions is still argued, and expert panels such as ESPN's have split on the 2004 and 2011 bouts. The fourth fight left no such question.

Sources

• Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Márquez IV, Wikipedia, accessed 2026
• Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Márquez III, Wikipedia, accessed 2026
• Juan Manuel Márquez, Wikipedia, accessed 2026
• Juan Manuel Marquez knocks out Manny Pacquiao in stunner, Yahoo Sports, 9 December 2012
• Bloodied Marquez knocks out Pacquiao in sixth, Agence France-Presse via Hürriyet Daily News, 9 December 2012
• Long shot: Pacquiao stunned by Marquez, The National (RJ Mickelson), 10 December 2012
• Pacquiao Wrests WBC Crown in Bloody Fight, Arab News, March 2008
• Experts score first three fights, ESPN.com, 6 December 2012
• Pacquiao loses WBO title in shock defeat, Al Jazeera, 10 June 2012