By Dexter Reyes
Boxing is the theater of the unexpected and when Juan Manuel Marquez knocked Manny Pacquiao out cold with one punch, I couldn’t believe my eyes. After watching that one punch KO of the great Pacquiao who was known for walking through punches from bigger men, I felt I was in the Twilight Zone and was dreaming. Marquez was never able to drop Pacquiao before, but for this bout Marquez was able to drop Pacquiao twice once with a right hand in the second and then finish him off with another right hand in the sixth round.
This KO has to be one of the most shocking KO’s in boxing history. I have to admit I wasn’t old enough to witness Buster Douglas knockout Mike Tyson, but this KO was the most shocking to me because Manny Pacquiao didn’t get up and his body lay lifeless on the canvas. The Douglas vs. Tyson KO was the biggest upset in sports history, but the knockout wasn’t as bad as the Pacquiao KO. The Roy Jones Jr. vs. Antonio Tarver KO was shocking but Roy wasn’t as huge a superstar as Manny Pacquiao was and even though he was knocked out he was still fighting to get back up before the fight was stopped. Pacquiao was lights out unconscious and motionless.
I guess why this KO loss is so shocking to me is that Pacquiao was a beast, he was known as the Pacman because he gobbled up opponents and ate their best punches in the process, I would never think he would get knocked out the way he did especially by a guy who fought him three times before and hit him with his hardest punches yet was never able to hurt or drop him.
Everyone I talked tothought if someone was going to win by knockout it was Manny Pacquiao not Juan Manuel Marquez. I thought the same thing, if anyone would get knocked out it would be Marquez since he was dropped several times by Pacquiao and maybe his age would catch up with him and the extra weight would slow him down, but it didn’t, he some how found the fountain of youth. Pacquiao was always a devastating puncher, but Marquez wasn’t a devastating puncher, he is more of a sharp puncher, even at featherweight he would mainly get knockouts through TKO and have to really put his punches together to drop guys, but out of nowhere he developed this insane one punch power and amazing physique at the age of 39-years-old when fighters are about to retire. Even Bernard Hopkins never developed that type of body or punching power in his 40’s.
I just want to know whatever Marquez’s conditioning trainer Angel “Memo” Heredia is giving him, I would love to know because he sure did an amazing job turning back the hands of time.
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