Pacquiao vs. Marquez Highlights: Pac-Man's Late Push Key in Controversial Win

As much as Juan Manuel Marquez looked like the better fighter in his majority-decision loss to Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao on Saturday night, Pacquiao did what he had to do to pick up the victory.

Marquez's cagey, counter-punching strategy clearly frustrated Pacquiao all night and got him off his game. In that respect, Marquez was the true winner, but Pacquiao's surge late in the fight should not go unacknowledged by those who thought Marquez should have won the fight.

As good as Marquez looked early, he seemed to lay back in the later rounds and allow Pacquiao to be the aggressor. Seeing as judges can only judge based upon what they see, the more aggressive fighter is often awarded the round regardless of whether his punches landed with regularity.

While Marquez may have been able to evade many of Pac-Man's flurries, his strategy of laying back and counter-punching against Pacquiao was effective, but at the same time it may have hurt him on the scorecards as Pacquiao won at least five of the last six rounds by my count.

The rounds that Marquez won earlier in the fight were much more decisive, but that doesn't change the fact that Pacquiao won the majority of the rounds down the stretch. Pac-Man may not have been his dominant self thanks to Marquez's fighting style, but he did just enough to win.

As much as people like to say that Pacquiao's win is part of some sport-wide conspiracy to set up a Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather match, Pac-Man was simply the better boxer in terms of scoring. If Marquez utterly dominated Pacquiao for five rounds, but Pacquiao squeaked out seven rounds, Pac-Man was the winner despite Marquez being more impressive.

That is a concept that many have failed to grasp, including the fans present for the fight as they showered Pacquiao with boos following his win. The fight was far from Pacquiao's best effort, but he has to be given some credit for hanging in there and battling back from a big deficit.

Had Marquez gone on the offensive even slightly over the second half of the fight, then he probably would have come out on top. That wasn't his strategy, though, and while he was certainly effective, his lack of aggressiveness worked against him.

Say what you will about the result of the fight, but Marquez didn't learn from the decisions in his first two fights against Pacquiao. The judges will almost always favor the more active fighter, and Pacquiao clearly knew that. Because of that, he was able to come out on top with a controversial victory.