It was a tough fight to score but i agree the disparity in scoring was baffling.
I had the Pac Man...but really Pacquiao had problems once Marquez settled down and counter-punched.
Here's an article from LVRJ:
Sunday, May 09, 2004
Copyright ? Las Vegas Review-Journal
Clements: 'I dropped the ball' with scoring error
By KEVIN IOLE
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Manny Pacquiao would be the WBA/IBF featherweight champion today had judge Burt Clements been aware that he was able to score a round 10-6.
Pacquiao recorded three knockdowns against champion Juan Manuel Marquez in the first round Saturday before a frenzied crowd of 7,129 at the MGM Grand. But Clements scored it 10-7 instead of 10-6 as the other two judges did.
Judge John Stewart called the bout 115-110 for Pacquiao. Guy Jutras had it 115-110 for Marquez. Clements scored the fight 113-113, making it a draw, but Pacquiao would have won had he scored the first round 10-6.
Clements said he thought the Nevada Athletic Commission did not want its judges to score a round 10-6, though executive director Marc Ratner said it is up to each judge's discretion.
"It used to be a (three-knockdown round) was a 10-7," Clements said. "I take full responsibility. Had I been aware of it, I would have scored it 10-6.
"Clearly, it wasn't non-awareness that there were three knockdowns. I just screwed up. I feel badly because I dropped the ball, plainly and simply. You can make a lot of arguments that it was a very close fight, but that's immaterial. The fact is, I dropped the ball."
Ratner said there is no rule that covers the situation and no grounds for a protest from the Pacquiao camp because it was a judgement call. Before the Association of Boxing Commissions devised a uniform set of rules that did away with the three-knockdown rule, a fight was considered a knockout when a fighter went down three times in a round.
Ratner said he expects to hear from Pacquiao camp's Monday, though he said the scoring of a round is no different than an umpire's ball-strike call in a baseball game.
"I believe without the three-knockdown rule that 10-6 was the right score," Ratner said. "(Clements) used his judgement to make it 10-7. There is no rule here; it's completely a judgement call, but you can give a 10-6."
Ratner said he was disappointed by the judges' varied scores. He said he likes to see at least nine rounds scored the same on all three cards, and only five were Saturday.
"We would have preferred a winner to have been picked, but I also know it was a tough, tough fight to score," Ratner said. "I had three well-versed judges who have done major title fights all over the world. That's the way they came up with it."
