The 32 year-old looked out of sorts for the first few rounds as Marquez, 38, frustrated the Filipino with his backfoot tactics and countered the champion supremely to gain the upper hand in the first half of the fight.
Pacquiao came on strong in the second half after taking a tongue lashing from trainer Freddie Roach who told him in no uncertain terms that he was losing the fight and his title.
‘Dinamita’ continued to limit the eight-time champion to only a handful of shots landing per round and could have easily won the fight by anything from two to four rounds.
As it was, Pacquiao was given a majority decision in the end to jeers from the crowd 114-114, 116-112 and 115-113 to retain his 147lb belt for the third time in his two-year reign.
A forlorn Marquez walked disgusted from the ring after the decision and avoided an after-fight interview with HBO in the ring feeling that he had been wronged by the result for the third time.
I scored it a 115-115 draw after Pacquiao came on strong in the last third of the fight.
