Pacquiao vs. Marquez 3: Judges' Disrespect Marks Career Trend for Marquez

Juan Manuel Marquez has been disrespected his whole career.

So it was no surprise that in a close fight between bitter rival Manny Pacquiao on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the judges shoved Marquez aside.

Marquez, who lost via majority decision on Saturday despite doing the little things that mattered (dictating the fight's pace, landing more quality punches), has never gotten the respect he deserves, primarily because of his fighting style.

While Pacquiao deserves the accolades he has gotten throughout his career as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world, bias quickly crept up among commentators during this fight.

Pacquiao is loved by the judges and commentators because of his high-octane, no-holds barred style of fighting. He's an offensive dynamo, and he always brings the fight to his opposition.

Marquez, on the other hand, has always been more of a counter-puncher, and a masterful one at that. While this style of fighting should be celebrated, it is constantly disrespected. HBO boxing commentator Harold Lederman exemplified it best in Saturday's telecast when he showed clear bias on his scorecard and even talked about how "judges like myself tend to go for the aggressor."

Said Lederman in the fourth round:

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"You have to wonder if Juan Manuel Marquez's style just depresses the judges enough (not) to win the fight. He backs up, he does nothing flashy. What he does is very unusual."

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And, aye, there's the rub.

Forget how excellently Marquez executes his style of boxing. He is constantly denounced because he's not "flashy" enough and is apparently too "unusual" for the sport of boxing.

It's a joke really, laughable that a fighter of his caliber doesn't get due respect.

I can understand if he was going up against an opponent who was timid and he still didn't press the action, but counter-punching was actually the perfect remedy against the aggressive Pacquiao and the very reason all three fights have been so close between the two.

The "judges," Lederman included, should be ashamed of themselves. This was by all accounts the fight of the year, but it ended, like so many, in controversy. Boxing took another step back when this fight had the ability to propel it out of the doldrums.

Marquez will never get the respect he deserves, and it's one of the many tragedies in boxing today.