The first fight with Juan Manuel Marquez was very exciting. Everyone was saying that it was a matchup between the two best featherweights and that was contagious to me. I trained very hard with Freddie Roach and I was really looking forward to it.
After I knocked Márquez down for third time in the first round and I headed back to the corner I was thinking, “It’s over. If I throw a few more left hands I’ve got him and I can end this in the second round.” Freddie was telling me the same thing.
So I threw more lefts at Márquez
but the problem was I didn’t land them this time. I might have been a little impatient trying
to end the fight and looking back now those misses gave him time to recuperate
a bit and adjust his game plan against me.
[Juan Manuel Marquez: I trained hard for first fight with Manny Pacquiao]
I was really surprised at how hard Márquez fought and got himself back into the fight. That really impressed me. But better than that, we gave the fans a great fight to watch.
Toward the latter rounds, because
I was wearing socks that were very thin, I had developed blisters on my feet
making it very difficult for me to move as effectively as I had during the
earlier rounds. I had to fight more
flatfooted than we had trained. After
the fight, when I took my boots off, my socks were worn through and they were
very bloody.
Going into the last two rounds of the fight, Freddie told me I had to really pick it up and take the last two rounds to “seal the deal,” which I did. No question I won those last two rounds and I hurt him in the 12th round when he came out in a southpaw stance and I was able to land some very hard shots. I remember him looking unsteady after I hit him.
It was called a draw but if the
one judge had correctly scored the first round 10–6 [for the three
knockdowns] instead of 10-7, I would have won the decision. But then
again, maybe we wouldn’t have had the great fights together that followed if he
had?
Pacquiao vs. Marquez 4 takes place Saturday, Dec. 8, from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View beginning at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT.
