(Original piece appeared at Business Mirror, through my new sports column, “That’s All.” What you are reading now has been slightly altered in keeping with the times and mood of read­ers oversea. Enjoy and thank you very much...) WE always hope for the best. But, at the same time, we also pray that the worst won’t happen. And so, we had hoped that the Pacquiao-Marquez fight on Sunday would be the best of their three fights. And, if we say “the best,” it should automati­cally mean that Pacquiao, the 9-1 favorite, should knock Marquez out. No more, no less. Alas, it didn’t happen that way. No knockout. Not even a knock­down. Alas, it didn’t even end the way we wanted it to: If Pacquiao couldn’t knock out Marquez, at least Pacquiao should have bat­tered the bratty Mexican into sub­mission. None of that sort had happened, too. To be sure, though, the worst didn’t happen, although it was close yet again. After 12 rounds of not really a slam-bang affair from Round 1 up to the finish, Pacquiao could merely eke out a majority deci­sion win. The last five rounds provided us a semblance of their fabled grueling duels in 2004 (draw) and 2008 (split decision win for Pac­quiao).
The last five rounds on Sunday also saved Pacquiao from defeat, when two of the three judges gave a 4-1, win-loss verdict to Pa­quiao.
Dave Moretti saw Pacquiao the winner in Rounds 8, 9, 10 and 12, giving Marquez the nod in Round 11.
And Glenn Trowbridge gave Rounds 8, 9, 10 and 11 to Pac­quiao, giving Marquez Round 12. The third judge, Robert Hoyle, saw it very differently in the last 5 rounds, making Marquez the winner in Rounds 8, 9 and 10 and Pacquiao the victor in Rounds 11 and 12.

Curiously, the judges’ score­cards looked interesting. Trowbridge throwing Round 12 in Marquez’s favor didn’t mat­ter anymore as he had made Pacquiao the winner as early as the 10th. His final score was a rout: 116-112, meaning he gave 8 rounds to Pacquiao as against Marquez’s measly 4.

Moretti giving Pacquiao the 12th round clinched it for Pac­quiao via a crucial 115-113 count. Had he picked Marquez the winner in Round 12, it would have ended in a 114-114 draw.
It was scary, indeed, because Hoyle saw the fight a draw at 114- 114 after making Pacquiao the winner in the last two rounds.

So, in the end, it was Moretti who pushed the pen for the win­ning point for Pacquiao. For, had Moretti vacillated and chose Mar­quez the 12th-round winner, we would have had a draw decision similar to 2004. All hell could have broken loose if that had happened, who knows? Did not the majority decision win itself for Pacquiao spark a near-riot among Mexican fans, who rained the arena with debris aimed at the judges after the de­cision was announced?

Many of Pacquiao’s fans were also disappointed. They were mostly of the flock that are used to seeing Pacquiao score over­powering victories, ranging from a devastating knockout to a sav­age pummeling.
Well, in fairness to them, prac­tically all of us wanted Pacquiao to knock out Marquez. And we were merely following Pacquiao’s oft-repeated pre-fight line: “This fight will put closure to our rivalry. All issues will finally be resolved.”

That was a reference, of course, to Pacquiao’s mission to knock out Marquez and dash doubts his 2004 draw with and 2008 split decision win over the Mexican were indecisive results. So obsessed was Pacquiao in this fight that he trained 10 weeks, which was two weeks more than his usual quota of prepara­tion in virtually all of his past 58 fights since he turned pro in 1995 as a skinny flyweight.

Normally a humble guy and as meek a lamb off the ring, but as ferocious a tiger atop the ring, Pacquiao had wanted to end the trilogy in a smashing success in his favor.
But what happened?
Well, in fairness, Pacquiao came ready to rumble in the jun­gle. As he had promised. Alas, Marquez came as a tour­ist, electing for a wait-and-see game. He had broken his prom­ise.
And take this: As the challeng­er, Marquez should have been the initiator of a no-nonsense combat. But as things turned out, Pacquiao the champ was the aggressor all the way. Role rever­sals.
It was only in the late rounds that Pacquiao had successfully baited Marquez to mix it up, somewhat transforming what was shaping up to be a bore into a semblance of a fight between two real warriors of the sweet sci­ence. It should have been a unani­mous decision win for Pacquiao had Hoyle made Marquez the loser in Round 10, as what both Moretti and Trowbridge had done.

But would it have mattered?
If you ask me, no, it wouldn’t have meant a thing. What matters now is the pres­ent. Meaning, Pacquiao should move on and pay attention to the future. Marquez should now be his­tory. No matter what people now say – either the Mexicans or us, Pinoys – the records will speak for themselves: Pacquiao had beaten Marquez twice already. As I said above, I’d say Pac­quiao had won three times al­ready. One judge in their first fight admitted he gave Pacquiao a wrong score, allowing Marquez to escape with a draw decision af­ter surviving three knockdowns in the first round in 2004.

The split decision win for Pac­quiao was as close as it can get in 2008. But then, a win is a win is a win.

The November 13 win for Pac­quiao was a majority decision and yet, some say it was contro­versial?
C’mon, let’s get real. To me, it was controversial only to the Mexicans. They couldn’t accept the fact that Marquez can never beat Pacquiao. As to some of our kababayans saying Pacquiao lost that one, this is my advice: It was really close, and Pacquiao really struggled. But at the end of the day, when the fight was over, Pacquiao had pulled it out of the fire.

There are really hard wins – and this was one of them. Pacquiao is also human. But Pacquiao won it fair and square. Let’s leave it at that. Let’s even celebrate – for our nation’s sakes especially in these times when we are really in need of a hero who’s been tremen­dously rallying us to act as one, think as one, to behave as one. All these years, Pacquiao has been the country’s symbol of hope. Let’s not stray from that dignified fact.