Was Manny Pacquiao “robbed of clear victories three times” during his pro career?

…..Manila Times article says so!

As the great Manny Pacquiao puts the final few days of training in the bank ahead of his must-win fight with “regular” WBA welterweight champ Lucas Matthysse, who the 39 year old all-time great will meet in Kuala Lumper on July 15, a number of articles are being written about the fighter some say is one of the top-10 greatest in all of boxing.

An interesting piece via The Manila Times looks back at the extraordinary pro record belonging to Pac-Man; and states, firmly, how Pacquiao’s record should today read 62-5-1(38) and not the actual 59-7-2(38) we can look up on invaluable website BoxRec. Why? Because, the article declares, Manny was “robbed of clear victories three times.”

“Robbery number-one” is the draw with arch-rival Juan Manuel Marquez, this being the first rumble the two greats would have. The draw should in fact have been a decision win, the article states, due to the three knockdowns Pac-Man scored in the very first round. Two of the three scoring officials had the round scored as a 10-6 for Pacquiao, whereas Burt Clements – who had the fight all-even at 113-113 after the 12 pulsating rounds – had the first-round down as a 10-7 winning score for Pacquiao.

All these years later, and fans are still debating who really won not only the first Pacquiao-Marquez fight, but also two of the next three encounters they had (we all know who won fight-four, and by end-of-discussion-shock-KO). Was Pacquiao really “robbed” in fight-one with the Mexican warrior?

As to the two other examples of robbery suffered by the Filipino icon, it’s almost certain not too many people will argue with The Manila Times piece.

The first fight Manny had with Tim Bradley was, in the opinion of almost all, a clear points win for the southpaw dynamo – yet as we know, Bradley was awarded the decision. Again, no argument with the argument that Pacquiao WAS robed that night. As for the other loss that should, in the opinion of the Manila Times article, really have been a win, the writer points to last July’s shocker against Australia’s Jeff Horn; who of course won the decision at home.

No argument here either? Maybe not, probably not – but this one was not as bad as the Bradley decision (that was duly avenged).

It really is the first Marquez fight that is the most debatable (to refresh your memory, Clements had it 113-113, while John Stewart had Manny up by a 115-110 margin, this exact same score being awarded to Marquez by judge Guy Jutras). But if Manny was robbed in fight-one, what about fights two and three – these also went down to the wire and were mighty close at the end. Was Marquez robbed of a victory in fight-two, or in fight-three?

Let’s all hope there is no controversial scoring in the Matthysse-Pacquiao fight. If it actually goes the distance, that is!