Many of Manny Pacquiao's most impressive performances took place in Las Vegas and has now added another big win in Sin City.
This time, Pacquiao dominated Adrien Broner to a unanimous decision victory (117-111, 116-112, 116-112). With the win, Pacquiao has now successfully retained his WBA "Regular" Welterweight title for the first time since winning the belt back in 2018.
Pacquiao opened things up with a flurry of punches in the first couple of rounds, overwhelming Broner with the sheer volume of punches thrown. Broner mainly defended for the first three rounds, but would start fighting back in the fourth round. While Pacquiao was throwing punches left and right, Broner picked his spots and looked to counter punch and catch Pacquiao off-guard.
Unfortunately for Broner, that was not the case as Pacquiao repeatedly moved forward and Broner could only move back and counter punch whenever he had the opportunity. Broner did get his best punch in the first half of the fight late in the sixth round when he was able to land a big right hook, but it was not enough to score a knockdown.
The Filipino champion would respond with a left hand in the seventh round, stunning Broner and nearly dropping him to the canvas. Pacquiao would do the same in the ninth round, catching Broner off-balance with a left hand and almost getting the stoppage. Broner eventually would start fighting back in the championship rounds, but by that point, it was too late for Broner to win in the scorecards.
After the fight, Pacquiao was questioned on his interest regarding a potential rematch against Floyd Mayweather. Pacquiao was previously asked by Fightful about it and said he will always hear that question from people and was asked once more by Showtime. In the ring, Pacquiao said he wants the rematch, but once Showtime put the cameras on Mayweather, who was sitting ringside, the retired boxer did not even give a response to that question.
As for Broner, he was visibly upset at the decision, believing that he won the fight. Broner believed that the fix was in so that Pacquiao and Mayweather could have the rematch.
Although Broner believed he won the fight, the numbers told a completely different story. Broner landed a total of 50 punches throughout the 12 rounds out of the 295 punches thrown by the former champion. Broner's jab was mostly ineffective as he only landed 11 jabs. Meanwhile, Pacquiao landed 112 punches out of his 568 that he threw in the fight.
It was Pacquiao's first fight in the United States since 2016 when he defeated Jessie Vargas to win the WBO welterweight title. Pacquiao has now won world title fights in Las Vegas against the likes of Broner, Vargas, Shane Mosley, Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto and more. Once the fight concluded, Pacquiao gave no indication that his career was stopping anytime soon, especially now that Pacquiao has signed with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC). The 40-year-old champion now has a number of potential big fights at welterweight, including against the likes of Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter and Errol Spence Jr., all titlists at 147 pounds fighting under the PBC banner.
