If you didn’t stay up until 1 a.m. then you likely missed the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight in Vegas last night.
Which also means you woke up this morning to a complete shocker.
Pacquiao, the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, is no more. Well, he didn’t die. But his mystique is no more.
Marquez had fought Pacquiao to a 0-2-1 record in their first three fights, but boxing experts felt Marquez probably deserved to win one of those two losses — both split decisions.
No such scoring necessary Saturday night. Marquez straight up knocked him out cold with one well-placed shot to the jaw. It came less than a minute into the sixth round, though Pacquiao had previously been felled in the third round as well. There was no getting up in the sixth.
Of course, since all anyone cared about going into the fight was Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather, that got a serious wet blanket thrown on it last night. It’s really too bad, because even though both guys may be a little overrated it still would’ve been a megafight for the first time in a decade or more.
Now, that dream is dead.
I suppose they’ll now have a Marquez-Pacquiao IV, which will do decent buys. We’ll see. Here’s an interview with Pacquiao after the bout. He looks like Hell. But then again, he did get knocked out, face first onto the mat.
Follow Metro New York Sports Editor Mark Osborne on Twitter @MetroNYSports. At least Pacquiao still has his political career to fall back on.
