Friday, December 7, 2012 at 2:00PM 
Pacquiao-Marquez IV Scorecard
Print out your exclusive scorecard and be the judge Saturday night when two of boxing's greatest rivals square off on HBO PPV. Fight night begins at 9PM ET (6PM PT). Untelevised undercards will be streamed right here on InsideHBOBoxing starting at 7PM ET.
And don't forget to submit your round-by-round numbers to @HBOBoxing throughout the fight.
Friday, November 30, 2012 at 8:29AM by Eric Raskin
Pacquiao-Marquez III ScorecardAs we build toward the fourth chapter in one of the most action-packed, closely contested rivalries boxing has ever known, HBO.com is re-playing the first three fights between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. It’s a chance to re-live the excitement—and re-score the bouts. The judges say the first fight was a draw and the next two belonged to Pacquiao. But you get a say as well. So watch, score, and tell us who you thought won these classic, controversial battles.
But first, print out your scorecard and read this guide to re-watching Pacquiao-Marquez III:
In Short: Despite prefight expectations that Pacquiao has outgrown Marquez and will knock him out, 8-1 underdog JMM boxes brilliantly – but not brilliantly enough to prevent an unpopular decision from going Pacquiao’s way.
Crunching the Numbers: If Marquez supporters are searching for reasons Pacquiao got the decision, the CompuBox numbers offer plenty of them. For starters, Pacquiao threw more punches than Marquez in every single round, and we’ve seen time and again that judges tend to favor the busier boxer. Pac-Man also out-landed Marquez over the course of 12 rounds, 117-100 in power punches and 59-38 in jabs. Marquez, however, was more efficient, landing at a slightly higher percentage overall, 32% to 30%. To those who scored for Marquez, it seemed his punches were landing cleaner and he was dictating the style and pace of the fight (both fighters threw fewer shots than in either of their previous two encounters). But the punch stats told a story consistent with the judging.
What Deserves a Second Look: Keep an eye on the footwork of each man throughout the fight; there’s a pronounced contrast between Pacquiao bouncing and pouncing and Marquez trying to time him while remaining relatively stationary. When the ninth round comes along, just sit back and enjoy it. That was one of the best rounds of the trilogy and it featured both men throwing more punches than in any other round of this fight as they went shot for shot in a series of aggressive exchanges. Also, watch the body language after the fight and when the decision is announced. Marquez exudes complete confidence—until the scores are read, when that confidence is replaced by disbelief and then disgust.
Scorecard Tips: Don’t let prefight expectations cloud your judgment. When scoring a fight, some observers have an unconscious tendency to give rounds – especially the early rounds – to the fighter they were expecting to win, while some others lean the opposite way and score for the fighter who is surprising them just by keeping it close. Pacquiao-Marquez III was a fight in which almost everyone came in expecting the Filipino to prevail, and assumptions like that can be hard to ignore when scoring the rounds. However, viewers should have no preconceived notions as they watch the fight again more than a year later. You know how it turned out. Be objective and score each round on its own merits, paying no mind to what your opinions of Pacquiao and Marquez were heading into the night of November 12, 2011. For more general scoring advice, check out our ‘How to Score a Fight’ primer with HBO’s unofficial judge, Harold Lederman.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at 6:52AM by Eric Raskin
Pacquiao-Marquez II ScorecardAs we build toward the fourth chapter in one of the most action-packed, closely contested rivalries boxing has ever known, HBO.com is re-playing the first three fights between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. It’s a chance to re-live the excitement—and re-score the bouts. The judges say the first fight was a draw and the next two belonged to Pacquiao. But you get a say as well. So watch, score, and tell us who you thought won these classic, controversial battles.
But first, print out your scorecard and read the below guide to re-watching Pacquiao-Marquez II:
In Short: In the most physically punishing battle of the trilogy, a third-round knockdown of Marquez keys a controversial split decision win for Pacquiao.
Crunching the Numbers: Though Pacquiao won the decision, the CompuBox stats favored Marquez. Pacquiao was busier, out-throwing his Mexican rival by a count of 619-511, but Marquez out-landed him 172-157, outscored him in power connects 130-114, and landed at a higher overall percentage, 34%-25%. The most eye-catching round in Marquez’s favor was the eighth, a stanza in which he out-landed Pac-Man 21-5. So what happens if you take that one-sided round out of the equation? Pacquiao out-landed Marquez 152-151 punches over the other 11 rounds. In other words, remove Marquez’s best round and it’s basically a dead-even fight. If you figure the knockdown Pacquiao scored during round three in some sense balances out Marquez’s dominant eighth round, then you can see why everyone agreed this fight was basically too close to call.
What Deserves a Second Look: The whole fight is worth watching again from an action perspective; these were two great champions, in their primes, dishing out a beating to one another. Both men landed at a higher percentage than in the first fight—another reason this could be considered the “best” fight of the rivalry. As you’re scoring the fight, pay particularly close attention to round six. That’s the one that Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, recently re-watched and admitted to the “24/7” cameras that his man probably lost, despite two of the judges scoring it for Pacquiao. Also, have fun rewinding and repeatedly re-watching the counter left from Pacquiao that dropped Marquez in the third round. It was a cleaner, harder punch than any of the left-hand shots he used to produce knockdowns in their first fight, and it’s a testament to Marquez’s conditioning and iron will that he recovered so quickly.
Scorecard Tips: Remember that scoring fights is not just punch counting. The impact of the punch matters. So, while determining the impact of a punch is often subjective, try to consider who seems to be hurting whom more in a given round. To paraphrase HBO’s Max Kellerman’s scoring philosophy, ask yourself which fighter you’d rather be at the end of the round, and that’s probably the guy who deserves 10 points. For more general scoring advice, check out our ‘How to Score a Fight’ primer with HBO’s unofficial judge, Harold Lederman.
Sunday, November 25, 2012 at 8:35PM by Eric Raskin
Pacquiao-Marquez I ScorecardAs we build toward the fourth chapter in one of the most action-packed, closely contested rivalries boxing has ever known, HBO.com is presenting the first three fights between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez over the next few weeks. It’s a chance to re-live the excitement--and re-score the bouts. The judges say the first fight was a draw and the next two belonged to Pacquiao. But you get a say as well. So watch, score, and tell us who you thought won these classic, controversial battles.
But first, print your scorecard and read the below guide to re-watching Pacquiao-Marquez I:
In Short: Pac-Man nearly scores a first-round blowout with three knockdowns, but Marquez earns a draw with a comeback for the ages.
Crunching the Numbers: The overall CompuBox numbers indicate the closeness of the fight, with Pacquiao a bit busier (a 639 to 547 edge in punches thrown), Marquez more accurate (a 29% to 23% edge in connect percentage), and the total number of connects almost identical (158 for Marquez, 148 for Pacquiao). Perhaps the most amazing stat is that, according to CompuBox, Marquez actually outlanded Pacquiao in the opening round! The Mexican hit the canvas three times, but went 13-for-40 on offense, whereas Pacquiao went just 11-for-73. Part of the problem for Pacquiao was that his right jab whiffed all 42 times he threw it. His straight left, however, did connect a few times, and three of those connects resulted in knockdowns.
What Deserves a Second Look: For starters, get a load of how one-dimensional Pacquiao was in 2004 as compared to now (this was before he developed a right hook). At the same time, spend the first three minutes of action admiring just how good that one dimension was. Over the next 11 rounds, watch how Marquez begins countering Pacquiao’s left hand. Notice how he controls the pace (Pacquiao’s punch output dips from 75 thrown per round in rounds one and two to just 40 per round over the final 10), works to the body, and gets in range to land his straight right hand, particularly in the fifth round. Most of all, keep in mind the guts of both fighters; what Marquez does over the last 10 rounds is astounding given what happened in the opener, but so too is Pacquiao’s continued ability to win rounds with sheer drive and tenacity after Marquez begins to “figure him out.”
Scorecard Tips: Each round needs to be assessed on its own individual merit. This was a fight that contained massive swings in momentum. But when you’re scoring, the momentum of the previous round doesn’t carry over. Start with a clean slate at the beginning of each three-minute stanza. For more general scoring advice, check out our ‘How to Score a Fight’ primer with HBO’s unofficial judge, Harold Lederman.
