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The World Boxing Organization announced that they will be awarding a special belt to the winner of the fourth fight between bitter rivals Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez on December 8 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

In a resolution that was approved during the WBO 25th Silver Jubilee Convention, WBO president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel approved the motion of WBO Vice-President for Asia-Pacific region Leon Panoncillo Jr. to award a special belt to the winner of Pacquiao vs Marquez IV.

Valcarcel explained: “Since both Pacquiao and Marquez are two of the most dominant boxers in the last decade, the WBO will name the winner of their fourth fight as ‘WBO Champion of the Decade,’ and a special belt will be created for this purpose.”

Valcarcel also hinted that the WBO Champion of the Decade belt will be some sort of a “peace offering” for Pacquiao, showing that the former pound-for-pound king is important to the organization.

WBO cited the controversial loss of Pacquiao against Timothy Bradley that forced the 33-year-old Filipino to surrender his WBO welterweight belt. The Organization ordered a review of that fight and later revealed that Pacquiao was the clear winner of the bout.

“Since there was a major controversy in Pacquiao’s last fight against Bradley, this action will show that the WBO cares for Pacquiao and hopefully this will appease Pacquiao personally and to his thousands of fans,” Panoncillo Jr. said.

Marquez and Pacquiao have gone through 36 rounds of action-packed boxing and both of them are aching to prove who the better fighter is.

Marquez, who holds the WBO junior welterweight title, is already in the middle stages of his training camp in Mexico City with Hall-of-Fame and long-time trainer Nacho Beristain.

On the other hand, Pacquiao, who was earlier named as the WBO Fighter of the Decade, has also intensified his training regimen in General Santos City, Philippines and is expected to fly to Los Angeles next week for the penultimate stages of his camp at the Wild Card Gym with Freddie Roach.