Pacquiao vs. Marquez: Why Clean Bout Is Important to Boxing

For the sport of boxing, what's the best possible result for Saturday's fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez?

Well, that depends on who your rooting interest is in. But with all due respect to Marquez and his fans, boxing needs Manny Pacquiao to win. 

How he wins isn't too important. It can be by knockout, unanimous decision or even split decision. But here's what can't happen when the fight is over.

The majority of fans can't come out of this fight with any doubt that Pacquiao legitimately won. We can't have a controversial ending. 

Why does this logic apply?

Well, the fight that needs to happen is Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao. Those are the biggest two names in the fighting world. The fact is that they can collide. The weights are right. So, they need to collide. 

But in addition to being the two biggest names in the sport, these two have something else in their favor. What's that?

The perception of Good vs. Evil.

I don't know Floyd Mayweather personally, but he doesn't seem to be bothered by playing the role of the bad guy. He's immensely talented, but also very polarizing.

Conversely, Pacquiao is the good guy. There's nothing about him that seems really unlikable. Obviously, he's well liked in the Philippines, but his appeal goes beyond that. 

How does that change if he wins this fight in a similar way to how Floyd Mayweather beat Victor Ortiz? 

Sure, the intrigue would still be there, but some of the magic would be gone. 

Honestly, that would even be the case if Pacquiao won a clean but disputed decision. 

Your rooting interests can be with either man. But the fact is that boxing needs Pacquiao to be the undisputed good guy vs. Floyd Mayweather. 

If that doesn't happen, the fight would still be big. It just wouldn't be anywhere near as big as it could be.