WHY not a Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel  Marquez IV?

After another controversial  majority decision win by Pacquiao over Marquez in their  World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight  match at the MGM Grand  in Las Vegas last Sunday, the  possibility of a rematch between the  two great fighters  next year becomes a lot clearer  than the  much-awaited mega-fight against  American champion  Floyd  Mayweather, Jr.

As things stand now, the richest fight in history between Pacquiao and  Mayweather could  really be on hold for a little longer.

Listen to  well-known promoter Bob Arum and Pacquiao's  multi-awarded  trainer, Freddie Roach:

“It was a great, great fight. There were many close  rounds. I had  Manny, but it was close, so why  not bring them  together again in  May?  It  makes a lot of sense to do  that. They should do it again," said Arum.

Said  Roach: “ It could  have gone either way. I think Manny edged it out in the final two rounds. I predicted the fight to last six rounds, but I  was way, way off. It was a very competitive fight. Manny have some good shots,  but not so great  and  Marquez gave him problems. He took Manny's punches a lot better this time.”

He also noted the 28 stitches over the right eye of Pacquiao.

And then the admission.

"It's a fight that I don't  want to do it again, but it looks like we have to, "added Roach , referring to the possibiltiy of a rematch.

Of course, the controversial  manner in which Pacquiao  eked out his second win  in three fights against  Marquez has a lot to do with the planned  rematch.

If you don't know it yet,  Pacquiao, the undisputed world's  best pound-for-pound champion,  managed only  to win in the scorecards of two of the three judges --  Glenn Trobridge  (116-112) and  Dave Moretti (115-113).

The third judge,  Robert Hoyle, had it a draw  (114-114).

The Associated Press  and Yahoo Sports  also saw the fight as a draw  (114-114).

Clearly, the  Filipino champion has had difficulty  in three fights with Marquez's counter-punching style despite landing 176 of  578 punches  compared to the Mexican's  138 of 436.

Marquez, nicknamed  “El Dinamita”, was able to consistently land a straight right hand and keep  his more-popular Filipino  rival off-balance.

The Mexican champion even appeared to pull ahead in the middle of the fight, although  Pacquiao managed to close  the  gap with a little run  of his own.

Like Sunday’s fight, the first two bouts  between  Pacquiao and Marquez could  have gone either way.

In  2004, Pacquiao floored Marquez three times  but managed only a split draw -- one judge favoring the Filipino, another picking  the  Mexican hero and the third,  Burt  Clemens scoring it a draw.

Clement later explained that he was unaware that he was allowed to call a round 10-6 and instead scored it 10-7 in the first round when Pacquiao scored three knockdowns.

Had he scored it 10-6, as did the other two judges, Pacquiao would have pulled a split decision.

In  the  2008  rematch,  the fight  went Pacquiao’s way  -- a razon-thin  split decision  victory in  a  super-feathwerweright  match.

“It  is a  robbery  and of the two robberies I have  had  against him, this is  the  most  terrible,”said  the 38-year-old  Marquez, who came out slow in the final round after being told by  his trainer Nacho Beristein  that  he was  winning the fight.

(Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports reported that the crowd  roundly booed Pacquiao and  pelted him with  cups of   beer and popcorns as he left the  arena with most fans  believing Marquez was the clear winner with  his harder punches, especially the right  hand).

“I  was  the one with the clearer  punches  and  I  won again., The audience protested because they knew that I won again. For me,  the best judges are the audience  and you see how they responded. I don't know what type of performance  I have to give . It’s diffcult to fight against a fighter and two judges as well,” added Marquez.

In Mexico, boxing fans are surely infuriated by this newest decision.

A  fourth installment of  this great Pacquiao-Marquez rivalry is probably  needed to finally settle the issue.

And  Mayweather?

The  brash, trash-talking American champion, who had to be watching from his own little boxing kingdom, will have to wait a little longer now for his chance to  get into the boxing ring with the proud Filipino hero.

And the one big  fight that the whole  world wants  to see --  one that could be the  highest-grossing fight in history -- will  have  to wait, too.

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Here’s an invitation from   Atty. Bobby Laurel  to all graduates of  Lyceum of the Philippines University.

Lyceum  will hold its 60th Grand  Alumni  Homecoming  on March  10, 2012

Among  the  highlights  of  the activity  are  special performances by select guest-entertainers  to be provided by  Silver Jubilarians (Batch 1987)  and  Tin  Jubilarians (Batch 2002);  raffle  of  prizes; and the presentation of the   top 60 alumni  awardees.

The prizes in the  raffle  include   trip for  2 to   Macau with accomodation at  the Venetian Hotel for three  days andtwo nights; trip  for  two to any domestic destination,  one flat screen TV, one notebook, one cellphone and  three stand fans.

The   outstading alumni  -- all 60 of them -- will be  honored before the end  of the  progran.

Ticket, which  costs P500 per person ( including food), will soon be available at the Lyceum Alumni   Affairs Office.

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NOTES -- Birthday greetings to  Janice Nell-Aquino (Nov. 15) and Angie de la Cruz (Nov. 15).

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