Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
■ Manny Pacquiao beat Adrien Broner by unanimous decision to retain his WBA welterweight belt.
40-year-old controls challenger all night
Adrien Broner was full of quips and questionable comments as usual during the buildup to his fight against Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden on Saturday night.
But he didn’t have many answers once the bell rang to start the bout in front of a sold-out crowd of 13,025.
Pacquiao retained the WBA welterweight title with a 117-111, 116112, 116-112 unanimous decision. The Review-Journal scored the bout 119-109.
Broner might have been the only person in the building who disagreed.
“I beat him,” he screamed during a postfight interview in the ring. “Everybody out there knows I beat him.”
It was one of his most aggressive moments of the night.
Pacquiao spent the first few rounds finding his range and landing body shots to wear down Broner.
He landed big shots to stagger Broner, who never has been knocked out in his professional career, but couldn’t seal the deal despite his best efforts with sustained flurries against the ropes in the seventh and ninth rounds as Broner covered up and survived.
“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. I’m so happy because God gave me this good health. At the age of 40 I can still give my best. Although I wanted to be aggressive more, my camp told me don’t be careless and to counter him and wait for opportunities.”
It was the second consecutive win and fourth in five fights for Pacquiao since losing to Floyd Mayweather in the biggest fight in boxing history.
There has been speculation about a rematch of the historic bout, which Pacquiao didn’t shy away from after his victory.
“Tell (Mayweather) to come back to the ring and we will fight,” Pacquiao said. “I’m willing to fight again Floyd Mayweather if he’s willing to come back to boxing.”
The technically retired Mayweather sat stoic as the camera panned to him in the arena after Pacquiao’s comments, but he addressed the speculation when he was interviewed during the broadcast.
“You keep asking me about Manny Pacquiao,” he said in a quick interview on the TV broadcast during the sixth round. “He needs to get past Adrien Broner first. And right now I’m living a happy and healthy life.”
If another fight with Mayweather is on the horizon, Pacquiao should be able to go into the fight with some confidence after a strong performance in his first bout since turning 40.
Broner, more than a decade younger, tried to get physical early in the fight. He would wrap up Pacquiao each time he tried to come forward and did a good job mitigating the damage in the first round despite not throwing a whole lot of punches.
It was a difficult strategy to maintain, as Pacquiao started to get home with his attacks in the second round and took control of the fight from there.
Also on the card, Marcus Browne remained undefeated and captured the WBA interim and WBC silver light heavyweight belts with a unanimous decision over Las Vegan Badou Jack.