Pacquiao vs. Marquez 3 Results: Winners and Losers from Saturday's Fights

In the words of the great Yogi Berra, "It was deja vu all over again" Saturday night as seven years and 18 extra pounds made little difference at all in a third matchup between No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world, Manny Pacquiao, and his long-time rival, Juan Manuel Marquez.

Once again Pacquiao walked away with the victory, a majority decision this time, and once again it will be a contested "W" on his boxrec.com page. 

The decision was not popular with large sections of the MGM Grand audience and Marquez immediately left the ring in protest. In an interview conducted backstage with HBO's Max Kellerman, Marquez and trainer Nacho Beristain both clearly expressed that they felt they had been robbed. 

It was another action-packed fight between the two elite boxers, though Pacquiao was at times much more tactical than we are accustomed to seeing him and Marquez seemed to slow down his pace somewhat in the final two rounds, perhaps influenced by his trainer Beristain, who was assuring him that he was way ahead between rounds. 

For his own part, Pacquiao stated that he felt he had clearly won. In truth, every round of the fight was competitive, even the ones where a particular fighter seemed to enjoy a clear overall edge. 

It was another classic from two of this generation's greatest fighters, and it capped off a very solid card. In that respect, the first winners from Saturday night have to be the boxing fans, who for once got the kind of pay-per-view experience that a fan can remember someday when he is an old man playing cards in a retirement home somewhere. 

The Undercard Winners: Burjos, Alvarado and Bradley

Timothy Bradley, fighting for the first time since beating Devin Alexander last January, made his top-rank debut Saturday night against former world champion Joel Casamayor.

Bradley was expected to win the fight and he did, knocking down Casamayor with a body shot in the fifth round and receiving credit for a knockdown that might have been a shove in Round 6. Casamayor also had a point deducted for holding in the fourth round, and was already nine points down when the fight was finally stopped in Round 8.

Mike Alvarado captured the vacant IBF Latino junior welterweight title and remained unbeaten with a dramatic final-round knockout of Breidis Prescott, as he trailed on the judges' cards.

And Juan Carlos Burjos captured the WBO Latino junior lightweight championship by upsetting previously undefeated Luis Cruz by unanimous decision.  

The Undercard Losers: Casamayor, Prescott, Cruz

Breidis Prescott is mostly known as that guy who knocked out Amir Khan that time, in a fluke. Against the undefeated Alvarado, he was waging a very spirited fight. He built an early lead and although he was showing signs of fading late, he was ahead on the cards when he got stopped in the final round. 

It has to be viewed as a crushing loss for the Colombian native. An upset over the undefeated, top 10 ranked Alvarado would have possibly set him up for a rematch with Khan. 

The undefeated Luis Cruz looked stiff-legged and awkward in his first professional loss. The Miguel Cotto protege's power clearly gave Burjos problems, but he was out-manuevered again and again. 

My main reaction to Joel Casamayor's loss is to hope he will never fight again. It is a virtual certainty that he will never fight again on a high level. 

Manny Pacquiao: A Win That Is a Loss

"Robbed" is a strong word, and there were way too many close rounds Saturday night for me to feel comfortable throwing it around right now. But I had Marquez winning the fight 115-113. A lot of people are going to be saying they agree with me, and even more will probably say they scored it a draw. 

It might be a check in the win column for Pac-Man, but it is something far short from a total victory. Even people who think Pacquiao won will have to admit that he certainly looked human, and at times vulnerable, in a manner that many of Pacquiao's newest bandwagon fans have never seen.

In the negotiating battles with Floyd Mayweather Jr., it is a total loss. Mayweather shut Marquez out. Pacquiao was lucky to escape Marquez with his hand raised. 

I don't even have to check to know that Mayweather has already tweeted his opinion that Marquez got robbed. 

Juan Manuel Marquez: Fair or Not, It Still Tastes Like a Loss

I think some people will be tempted to view the results of Saturday night's fight as some sort of victory for Marquez. It is true he fought well enough to win.  He demonstrated to a new and larger audience that even at 38 years old, he still has not lost a step against his old nemesis.

But he lost just the same, and for a fighter with Marquez's pride, that is going to be a bitter pill to swallow. He will tell himself and believe in his heart that he won, but he will also know that the rounds truly were close, and so there may have been more he could have done.

In particular, Marquez must accept the fact that he did not press the gas every time he had the chance and, ultimately, in a close fight, that appears to have cost him.  

In the Battle of the Trainers, Roach Clearly Wins

Even as their fighters were battling neck and neck throughout the fight, the two Hall of Fame trainers were taking radically different approaches to managing their fighters. In the end, it might have made the difference. 

With Pacquiao clearly appearing to go down in the scoring early, Freddy Roach rallied his fighter, instilling a sense of urgency in him.

Nacho Beristain's handling of Marquez down the stretch in this fight will go down in history as a case of a great trainer behaving in a manner that is very difficult to understand. Beristain continually reassured his fighter that he was winning, and it appeared to prompt him to ease up and lose some critical rounds.

Even though I felt like Marquez was winning the fight, it still seemed very close to me, and as Marquez himself said prior to the fight at one point, in order to get the decision against Pacquiao, he would probably need to win every round.   

A Win for Mayweather, Too

Meanwhile, I have to imagine that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is somewhere in Vegas even as I am writing this, with a big smile on his face. 

In the always popular argument about who did better against common opponents, this is a major victory for Mayweather.  I expect that the fans will still be almost as anxious to see this fight as they were before, but now Mayweather's bargaining position has clearly improved. 

On many pound-for-pound lists, Mayweather has likely just moved back up to No. 1.