Manny Pacquiao: Controversial Win Makes Floyd Mayweather Look Like the Good Guy

The judges may have given Manny Pacquiao the decision over Juan Manuel Marquez, but the court of public opinion figures to rule otherwise, thereby inadvertently throwing Floyd Mayweather Jr. into an unfamiliar role.

That of the benevolent one.

A harsh criticism of Pacquiao, indeed, but one that is well deserved after watching Bob Arum and Top Rank buy the fight to ensure another big payday for themselves without the need to negotiate with Golden Boy Promotions, Mayweather’s representation.

Money May has long gone out of his way to be the bad boy of the boxing world, trashing his opponents at every turn and, most recently, knocking out Victor Ortiz on what some felt was a cheap shot and getting in the face of 80-year-old Larry Merchant afterward.

Yet, Pacquiao's latest plunder is enough to make Pretty Boy Floyd look like the better man in the seemingly never ending detente that has kept these two superstars apart.

Well, that and the reluctance among Pacquiao's camp to submit to the sort of Olympic-style drug testing that Mayweather has long advocated.

It's strange to think that Pacquiao, being the charismatic and immensely popular figure that he is, could ever be painted as a villain, which may just be what Arum is counting on, that the masses of idolaters who support Pacquiao as a sports deity wouldn't dare think that their beloved fighter is mixed up in the dirty business of boxing.

If there's anything to be appreciated about Mayweather, then, it's that he at least has never feigned complete moral purity, choosing instead to run afoul of the law and burn bridges at every turn.

But at least he's earned his victories fair and square (more or less). At least he's come by his scumbaggery honestly, whatever that means.

At least he never even came close to losing to Juan Manuel Marquez. 

For the latest news and updates on Pacquiao vs. Marquez, and for all the latest news and insight on all things boxing, be sure to check out Bleacher Report's Boxing Central.