LAS VEGAS – 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 that was watched by an announced attendance of 13,025 fans, including the retired Floyd Mayweather.
“I proved in my last fight against [Lucas] Matthysse and now I proved it again: The Manny Pacquiao journey will still continue,” Pacquiao said.
Asked by SHOWTIME’s Jim Gray if he would like to rematch Mayweather in the future, Pacquiao said he’d do it if Mayweather unretired.
“Tell him to come back to the ring and we will fight,” Pacquaio said. “I’m willing to fight Floyd Mayweather again if he’s willing to come back to boxing.”
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.”
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- Pacquiao vs Broner
