Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez will forever be tied in boxing history as incredible opponents who brought out the best in each other in three amazing fights. Pacquiao won tonight's fight by majority decision with one judge scoring it 114-114 and the other judges seeing it 115-113 and 116-112 for Pacquiao. The crowd booed very loudly at the decision and booed during the in-ring interview with Pacquiao after the bout.
Myself, Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook, Steve Kim of MaxBoxing and Eric Raskin of Grantland all scored the fight for Marquez very close, but there were many, many close rounds throughout the bout and it's hard to get upset over Pacquiao winning the bout.
In the end it was Pacquiao's aggression that did more to impress the official judges -- and those are the ones that matter.
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Marquez was not expected by most to be able to compete with Pacquiao in 2011. He was going up in weight to a spot where he looked awful against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and was now 38 years old to Pacquiao's legitimate size and 32 years of age.
Instead we were reminded why Marquez is one of the best fighters of his generation as he fought his heart out, gave Pacquiao everything he could handle for the third straight time and took him to his absolute limits.
Pacquiao had no quit in him and in the end he was able to come forward and throw his left hand with enough effectiveness that it kept Marquez from ever running away with the fight.
One of the biggest factors during the fight was the late rounds when Marquez's trainer told him he had a big lead, which led to Juan taking his foot off the gas and giving up a few rounds to Pacquiao's aggression.
We will have much, much more on this fight tonight and tomorrow as we deal with the fallout as well as dig deep into examining this fight.
Follow our coverage of Pacquiao vs. Marquez 3 here at MMA Nation and at our boxing blog Bad Left Hook.