Pacquiao, Mayweather or Dawson: Which Victory Was the Most Controversial?

Heading into 2011, many boxing fans were anticipating the possible superfight between Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO) and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (42-0, 26 KO). It had been more than a year since the bout was as close to being signed since the hype began, and it appeared it would happen before both took on different opponents.

Mayweather chose to fight former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz, whom he knocked out in the fourth round by what many called a "legal sucker-punch." After referee Joe Cortez deducted a point from Ortiz for intentionally headbutting his opponent, Ortiz felt it necessary to apologize to Mayweather more than once, and he paid for it.

Mayweather took advantage of a defenseless Ortiz, and a left-hook, right-hand combo delivered by the pound-for-pound star put Ortiz down and out on the canvas.

Controversy mostly surrounded Cortez, who was not looking at the fighters when the action resumed. Mayweather simply took advantage of an opponent who had his guard down. Nobody really can say whether or not Cortez actually restarted the action. All he did was wave the fighters in and then point to the timekeeper.

During the pre-fight instructions, Cortez did warn both fighters to "protect yourself at all times."

After a disappointing outing against Shane Mosley in May, Pacquiao took on Juan Manuel Marquez for the third time on Nov. 12. The first two had also been surrounded by controversy.

After knocking Marquez down three times during their first meeting in 2004, Pacquiao only managed to earn a draw against his Mexican rival. The 2008 rematch saw Marquez getting dropped again, and Pacquiao left with a split-decision victory.

The third fight had no knockdowns, but Pacquiao proved he wouldn't need them to win and walked away with a majority decision victory after 12 rounds with the scores 114-114, 116-112 and 115-113.

Many fans who watched the fight had Marquez winning at least six to eight rounds, and punch stats showed Pacquiao only outlanding Marquez in six of the rounds. They also acknowledged that the fight was close and probably could have gone either way.

Now, instead of fans calling for the superfight, many are calling for rematches with Ortiz and Marquez.

Both pay-per-view events generated over a million buys, but in the case of both boxers going into their bouts as heavy favorites and leaving with the victory, there is no reason to do either of them again.

The third major HBO pay-per-view event of 2011 saw light-heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KO) defending his title at the age of 46 against "Bad" Chad Dawson (31-1, 18 KO).

This may have been the most controversial of the three, and after only two rounds of boxing, the fight came to an end when Hopkins was thrown from a clinch and hurt his shoulder when he hit the canvas.

When referee Pat Russell didn't indicate an intentional foul had occurred, the bout was ruled a TKO victory for Dawson, giving Hopkins the first stoppage loss of his career.

The WBC quickly overturned the result, and Hopkins received his titles back. The decision is set to be appealed on Dec. 13 and will probably changed to a no contest.

With all of the controversy surrounding the three biggest events of the year on HBO, there is only one way to make up for it, and that's by putting on the superfight everyone wants to see between Pacquiao and Mayweather.