If it was indeed the final fight of an unforgettable career that launched him from unspeakable poverty in the rural Philippines to worldwide fame and fortune, then Manny Pacquiao went out with the crowd-pleasing brio that was his calling card.<\/p>\n
The fighting congressman from Sarangani province dropped Timothy Bradley in the seventh and ninth rounds en route to a unanimous-decision victory on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. All three ringside judges scored it 116-110, as did the Guardian.<\/p>\n
Afterward he confirmed the central selling point of the promotion: that it was his last fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I am retired,\u201d Pacquiao said. \u201cI want to go home to my family and serve the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pacquiao\u2019s first outing since coming up short against Floyd Mayweather more than 11 months ago found the fighter at a curious point. The ill will left over from an underwhelming showing in the fight of the century and the anti-LGBT rhetoric that cost him an endorsement deal with Nike had cast him, to some extent, in the unfamiliar role of heel.<\/p>\n
Instead it seemed the moment was there for Bradley, whose own Hall of Fame career was for so long obscured by their first fight, a highly disputed split decision that went to the American, to step up and finally claim the respect he deserves.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t to be. Instead Bradley found himself in with the same nightmare matchup he\u2019d struggled with in two previous meetings: a puncher just as fast and better defensively.
\n\u201cHe was a step ahead of me,\u201d Bradley observed afterward. \u201cI was supposed to be a step ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) appeared eager to be the aggressor when the opening bell rang but the first round soon became a tactical clash that saw the fighters pawing with jabs and taking the other\u2019s measure. Even when both men opened up by the third, the action came in bursts.<\/p>\n
Bradley (33-2-1, 13 KOs) enjoyed his best moments early in the fifth, backing Pacquiao up along the ropes and connecting with a chopping right early before a left-right combination upstairs. But Pacquiao immediately responded in kind and the pair traded
\nhellfire in the center of the ring with the Filipino getting the better of the exchanges.<\/p>\n
For a moment it was the Pacquiao of old. When the bell rang Bradley\u2019s trainer Teddy Atlas had climbed through the ropes and berated his fighter before he could even take his stool.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he hurt his opponent he want after him and he did what he was supposed to do,\u201d Pacquiao\u2019s longtime trainer Freddie Roach said.<\/p>\n
By the sixth Pacquiao had found his range \u2013 a dangerous prospect for Bradley given his hand-speed disadvantage \u2013 and in the seventh he dropped the American with a short right hook.<\/p>\n
It was a flash knockdown near the end of a strong Bradley round that might have been ruled a slip, but referee Tony Weeks\u2019 ruling that his glove had touched the canvas stood. Far more convincing was the counter left in the ninth than landed flush and sent Bradley clattering to the deck, where the momentum carried him into a reverse somersault.<\/p>\n
\u201cManny was luring me in,\u201d said Bradley, who connected on 99 of 302 punches (33%), compared to 112 of 439 (28%) for Pacquiao. for Bradley according to CompuBox. \u201cHe was waiting on me, to commit, to lunge in, so he could counter. Then in spots he would attack. He was being the ocean tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
By then Bradley seemed to know he needed a knockout to win, which made him more vulnerable than ever. He reverted to circling around Pacquiao and pawing with the jab precisely when he needed to step on the gas. The crowd rose to their feet for the final minute, perhaps the last of Pacquiao\u2019s career, before the bell sounded on the 36th round of the trilogy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did everything I could to get him to come to me,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cHe was just super smart tonight. He was the smarter man. He\u2019s the best fighter I\u2019ve ever faced in the ring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Atlas: \u201cI don\u2019t think my fighter came up short, I think I did. Give credit to Manny, Manny was terrific. We wanted to take a little more advantage of his preliminary movement before he exploded forward. I think we had opportunities to do that, but I don\u2019t know that I pushed the right buttons to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The malleability of retirements in boxing is their essential quality, but Pacquiao\u2019s promoter seemed to accept this was the end. \u201cAs far as I am concered, until I hear differently, Manny Pacquiao has retired from the sport of boxing,\u201d Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said afterward.<\/p>\n
No one does a nostalgia act like Las Vegas. Over the past few years there\u2019s been none bigger than Pacquiao. At 37, he is still a world class operator, one of the sport\u2019s top welterweights capable of beating nearly anyone put in front of him. But for years he\u2019s been marketed as the one-man wrecking crew whose concussive knockout power felled a parade of bigger, stronger opponents.<\/p>\n
In reality it\u2019s been seven years since he stopped an opponent inside the distance, a recession attributed to both his ascent to welterweight and the encroachment of Father Time. If Saturday\u2019s fight is his farewell, it\u2019s as good as place to walk away as any.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s got plenty to fall back on, not least the forthcoming senatorial election on 9 May in his native Philippines, an office he\u2019s expected to win that will consume far more time than his current duties as a congressman.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart is 50\/50,\u201d he said when pressed. \u201cI might enjoy my retired life or I might want to come back. It\u2019s hard to say because I\u2019m not there yet. But right now my decision is to retire.\u201d If it was indeed the final fight of an unforgettable career that launched him from unspeakable poverty in the rural Philippines to worldwide fame and fortune, then Manny Pacquiao went out with the crowd-pleasing brio that was his calling card. The fighting congressman from Sarangani province dropped Timothy Bradley in the seventh and ninth rounds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":205622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1345,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boxing","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=205620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=205620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=205620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=205620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n–
\nBy: The Guardian<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"