Bedlam ensued, followed by a million saloon-bar arguments and then the inevitable march to a third and final instalment. Pacquiao is predicting a victory and is hoping for a decisive one. "What I need to do with my performance on Saturday is prove that I won the fight, so that there can be no argument this time," he said. The only sure way to avoid any debate would be to stop the contest before the regulation 12 rounds but for all the Filipino's brilliance, that is easier said than done. Márquez, as he proved in getting up from four knockdowns in their two previous meetings, is durable as well as rugged. He will also step into the ring carrying a strong sense of injustice. "I know I'm going to have to win the fight in a very convincing manner and hope that the judges score what they are seeing. They were not very impartial the last time," the 38-year-old said. 

The Mexican is stepping up to the welterweight division (144lbs) for this fight and is noticeably bigger and more muscular than he has been before — a transformation he attributes to his new strength-and-conditioning trainer, Angel Hernández. Yet if the boxer is happy with Hernández, the coach's presence in the camp has seen accusations fly. Three years ago he was the key witness in the US government's case against the former track coach Trevor Graham, testifying in court that he had supplied the former Olympic sprint and long jump champion Marion Jones and the men's former 100m world-record holder Tim Montgomery with a wide range of performing-enhancing drugs. Victor Conte, the former owner of the infamous Balco drug laboratory which supplied steroids to dozens of US athletes, has been among those critical of Hernández's involvement in Márquez's preparation. "The Feds rolled him over on everybody involved in the case, including several world champions and Olympic medallists. Bottom line. 

We both know people from the dark side of the sport, and I'm certainly suspicious of current activities," Conte recently said to Ring Magazine. Hernández has responded with the threat of legal action, while Márquez has insisted he is happy to be drug tested, as long his opponent is similarly checked. But Pacquiao has remained above the fray, preferring to discuss the fight in strictly boxing terms. "It has been a long time since our last fight and seven years since our first fight. I think over the years I have become a much better boxer. My style and my technique have improved, I am more experienced and I have developed my right hand," he said. "When we fought before I had never really studied how to fight counterpunchers like Márquez. Now I am ready to fight a counterpuncher."