Am teh championz wtef! lolz! Wait… what the eff are these Gremlins doing in here?

Yes, Manny Pacquiao steals the WBC super featherweight title from Mexican former boxing champ Juan Manuel Marquez this evening, March 15, 2008 after four years since their last bout at the Mandalay Bay venue. On a split decision, Manny Pacquiao shadows Marquez with official scores of 115-112 and 114-113 for Pacquiao and 115-112 for the Mexican Marquez.

Because of our too much anticipation on the bout between these two, I skipped two meals just to setup SopCast and our largest speakers in our living room. Of course, Mom and the rest of the gang was there wondering about my house tweaking.

The Power of Palakasan. Ferkrisesake, I don’t know how Manny came up with such a decision to let an underrated, Danica Sotto InterCollegiate Award in Technology (DSICAT) receipient daughter-of-a-celebrity named Ciara Sotto sing the National Anthem. Oh the power of Palakasan, indeed. It could have been Charice Pempengco, or anyone but Ciara Sotto. Blah. I mean, a 14-year-old Filipino-Mexican-American hybrid performed the US anthem.

The first few rounds were really intense. Due to the number of times Marquez threw punches on Pacquiao perfectly, all of us, especially mom, was shouting and screaming and punching each other. Perhaps we were the only ones in our subdivision block who were ultimately aware, or advanced, of the live bout (thank you Internet). T’was a real rollercoaster ride, where Pacquiao has received almost ever.. ehem… ‘punch’ from Marquez every time he does, like BLAH! MANNY! WAAG AY FOCK AY SHYET AARGH! SHYET! AAAWWRGH!

And then Marquez tumbled down after a big right blow coming from Pacquiao on the second third round.

PWNED!

PWNED TIMES TWO!

After that, we weren’t paying too much attention with the details of the whole fight. Stupefied, I may suggest, as we curse each successful landing of Marquez’ punches. Did I say Marquez toppled Pacquiao in the successful punches department?

But no. It was pretty obvious that Manny dizzied Marquez with his finger countable, but strong blows to Marquez’s visage, leaving him with a… geez… disgusting… brrr… cut on his… grlglglr… right eyelid.

(At that moment, all of us, mom, Kuya Prince, Henry, and Teri, were gagging/looking on the other direction every time that focking HBO cameraman does extreme and overexposed close-ups on Marquez’… errr… humongous eyelid laceration. (Yes, that worse talaga)

Okay. Are you supposed to banner your B-faces, Singson and de Castro? WTEf?

Just like the last bout between Pacquiao and Barrera, in order to pre-empt GMA7’s blatant commercialization of his fight, I installed SopCast and browsed (and compared) 5 sports channels to see which buffers fastest.

CONGRATULATIONS MANNY PACQUIAO!

WE ARE ALL PROUD OF YOU AND YOUR LEFT ‘EYES’ AND RIGHT ‘HANDS’ (Kidding, of course)!

It’s an interesting thing to notice the results of the scorecards coming straight from the judges of this main event. Only one judge rendered a favorable verdict to Juan Manuel Marquez, and that was none other than that Jeremy Roth guy, the very same being who made that unmistakable mistake of giving Manny Pacquiao an unfavorable score to have Marquez retain the world title four years ago.

MABUHAY KA MANNY!

Pacquiao decisions Marquez

By Francis Ochoa, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao is the WBC super featherweight champion of the world.

The Filipino stole the world title from Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez, leaning on a third round knockdown and a late charge in the match to win by split decision.

Dwayne Ford had it 115-112 while Tom Miller scored it 114-113 both for Pacquiao. Jerry Roth had it 115-112 for Juan Manuel Marquez.
The difference in a bout when both men were bloodied but traded hard punches to the finish proved to be a third-round knockdown inflicted by Pacquiao, who improved to 46-3 with two draws.

“I did my best. I’m happy because I won,” Pacquiao said. “Marquez is a really hard opponent. I expected the fight was going to be hard. He moved fast. He had head movement and more counterpunches.”

Marquez, who fell to 48-4, said he felt robbed by the decision.

“I thought I won. The decision wasn’t correct,” Marquez said. “I haven’t lost anything at all. The people know who really won the fight. Decisions like this are disturbing. I believe I won the fight.”

“I think I won the fight,” Pacquiao said.

Pacquiao is expected to move up to the lightweight division and challenge US fighter David Diaz, the WBC lightweight champion who improved to 34-1-1 with a majority decision win over Mexican Ramon Montano in a non-title undercard bout.

“We have a plan to fight at 135 pounds but it’s not yet fixed,” Pacquiao said.

Pacquiao was expected to receive nearly $5 million from the pay-per-view battle with Marquez taking home about $1.5 million.

Pacquiao knocked down Marquez three times in the first round of their first meeting but the Mexican collected himself and rallied for a draw as one judge scored the bout for each fighter and the third saw the bout as a draw.

The rematch began cautiously. Pacquiao landed a hard left and evasive Marquez a solid right to the chin in a tactical first round and tagged Pacquiao with a hard left to the chin late in the second round.

But aggressive Pacquiao struck late in round three, firing a hard left hand to the chin with 20 seconds remaining. The Asian superstar staggered Marquez’s knees again just as the bell sounded to end the round.

“Our number one plan for training was the left hook. I was lucky enough to hit it in that round,” Pacquiao said.

With impressive upper body motion and footwork as well as powerful punches, Pacquiao continued to attack. Marquez answered by slowing the pace and working his right hand, often keeping the challenger at bay with counter-punches.

“We pressed and we hurt him three, four, five times,” Marquez said. “Like in 2004, it’s not just one round.”

An accidental head-butt midway into the seventh round opened a bloody cut over the right eye of Marquez and seconds later Pacquiao pressed the attack with a furious flurry.

“It didn’t affect me,” Marquez claimed.

Pacquiao also received a cut above his right eye and Marquez opened it into a wide bleeding gash with punches early in the eighth round, trickling blood interfering with Pacquiao and allowing Marquez to dominate the round.

“The cut, it really bothered me. I couldn’t see out of my right eye,” said Pacquiao. “That’s why I was so bothered. That’s why I couldn’t cover myself.”

Pacquiao opened another cut above Marquez’s right eye in a tight ninth round and began the 10th with a hard left to the body in a hard flurry, then reopened the gash above Marquez’s eye while protecting his own cut.

The final round began tentatively but led to solid exchanges between the bloodied battlers in the last seconds, trading blows to the final bell that prompted each fighter to raise his hands in victory.

Pacquiao, 29, won his seventh fight in a row and improved to 20-1 since 1999, his lone loss a 2005 decision to Mexican Erik Morales. Marquez, 34, has lost only twice in that span, the other time in 2006 to Indonesian Chris John.

From inquirer.net