All-time great Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao cruised to a comfortable unanimous decision over Adrien “The Problem” Broner to defend his WBA Welterweight World Championship on SHOWTIME PPV® Saturday night in front of a sold-out MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The scores were 117-111, 116-112 twice.
The global icon and boxing’s only eight-division champion Pacquaio – who was fighting for the first time as a 40-year-old, and the first time in the United State in more than two years – used effective jabs and sustained body work in his 70th professional fight.
The contest was watched by an announced attendance of 13,025 fans, including the retired Floyd Mayweather.
In his last fight, in July of 2018, where Pacquiao dropped Lucas Matthysse three times to get a seventh round stoppage to put away Matthysse in the seventh round. It was Pacquiao's first stoppage win since November of 2009, when Pacquiao stopped Miguel Cotto.
“I proved in my last fight against [Lucas] Matthysse and now I proved it again: The Manny Pacquiao journey will still continue,” Pacquiao said.
SHOWTIME Sports official scorer Steve Farhood scored the fight 118-110 in favor of the Filipino Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs), giving Cincinnati’s Broner (33-3-1, 24 KOs) only the fourth and the 10th rounds.
Broner said he thought he did enough to win the fight. “I beat him,” he said. “Everybody out there knows I beat him. I controlled the fight, he was missing. I hit him clean more times. I beat him.”
Pacquiao maintained a strong pace throughout the fight, throwing 47 punches per round compared to Broner, who averaged almost half that output. Broner was limited to single-digit total connects in every round while Pacquiao exceeded double-digits five times.
“I wanted to push more but my trainer said don’t be careless,” Pacquiao said. “Wait for him, counter, and that’s what I did.”
2023-10-22 15:47:09
