Manny Pacquiao Super Featherweight title

On March 15, 2008, in a rematch against Juan Manuel Marquez, Pacquiao won via a highly disputed split decision. Pacquiao won the WBC and The Ring superfeatherweight belts, making him the first Filipino to win three world titles in three different weight divisions (Pacquiao was a former WBC Flyweight Champion, IBF Super bantamweight, and now WBC Super featherweight). The fight was controversial, with some boxing analysts saying Marquez should have been the winner.

During the postfight interview, Marquez’s camp called for an immediate rematch. Richard Schaefer, GBP CEO, offered a $6-million guarantee to Pacquiao for a rematch. Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, still stinging from the less-than-stellar revenue from Kelly Pavlik’s immediate rematch with Jermain Taylor, said the fight will probably happen but only after there is time to “put a little air under it.” Pacquiao, for his part, said “I don’t think so, this business is over” because he planned to move to lightweight (135 lbs) to challenge David Diaz, the reigning WBC Lightweight Champion at the time. Diaz won a unanimous decision over Ramon Montano that night as an undercard of “Unfinished Business.”