Referee Kenny Bayless, center, sends Juan Manuel Marquez, from Mexico, right, to his corner after Marquez knocked out Manny Pacquiao, from the Philippines, left, in the sixth inning of their WBO world welterweight fight Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, in Las Vegas. Marquez won the fight by a knockout. (AP Photo/Eric Jamison)
MANILA, Philippines—How often does one see 10-time world champion Manny Pacquiao knocked out cold, motionless, on the canvas?
It was the first time.
So when Pacquiao absorbed a solid right to the chin from Juan Manuel Marquez that sent him crashing just a seconds before the end of sixth round Sunday (Manila time), everyone was stunned.
At Discovery Suites in Pasig, where a live viewing of the fight was held at the 42nd floor, all the spectators were rendered speechless for a few seconds.
“We were shocked, sobrang unexpected. We really thought he was winning, we didn’t even see the punch,” Vince Lavarez, 35, told INQUIRER.net a few minutes after the fight concluded.
In the third round, Pacquiao already got a taste of what he has done to Marquez a couple of times—get knocked down for the first time.
But Pacquiao came alive after that, and surged ahead to control the match—especially early in round six when Marquez was already troubled with a bloodied, broken nose.
All the 38-year-old Mexican boxer really needed was one, perfectly timed and aimed blow—though Pacquiao had landed more clear shots than Marquez all night.
“(A) good, clean and well-timed punch,” said Simon Ong (@simonong), on the social networking site Twitter.
“It was a clean shot. Great punch by Marquez,” also tweeted Jet Cruz (@the_jetcruz) regarding Marquez’s victory-clincher.
Many fans on Twitter pointed out, as did Lavarez, that Pacquiao might have gotten a bit careless toward the end of that sixth round—giving Marquez a window.
“Maybe, he got too confident because he was already controlling that round. Maybe he wanted to give a good impression so he got careless,” shared Lavarez, who has always watched Pacquiao’s fights in recent years.
“Marquez was better prepared. Manny got careless. That’s it,” said Raul Ojeda Jr. (@OJ_MD) on Twitter, responding to @INQUIRERSports’ question.
Iris Dimero (@irisdimero) had the same sentiment, saying “Pacquiao already had the fight, he should have been more careful and just cruised through it to the end.”
“Pacquiao became careless in the last few seconds of round 6. That was his greatest mistake,” responded @atty58ab.
After sending so many fighters bloodied on the floor, Pacquiao himself lying on the floor Sunday was an unreal sight.
“When have you ever seen Pacquiao like that—it was scary,” Lavarez said.