Manny Many Prizes! Pacquiao Champion Again!

Manny Pacquiao defeated Timothy Bradley last weekend via unanimous decision for the WBO Welterweight championship and avenging the controversial points loss to Bradley from June 2012. In a much closer affair than their first fight, neither fighter was able to clearly outperform the other, but the right fighter came home with the win in an exciting rematch.

While Bradley controlled the action in the first half of the fight with sharp lead right hands and a vicious body attack, Pacquiao bided his time and scored on the ropes with an all to willing to exchange Bradley. As the fight progressed into the later rounds, Bradley abandoned his body attack and the fight devolved into a brawl; which lead to Pacquiao having his best moments of the fight firing multi-punch combinations and landing the harder shots down the stretch.

Heading into the later rounds, Pacquiao also managed to keep his composure while raising his activity level in regards to his offense as Bradley began taunting and challenging Pacquiao to engage. Bradley’s trainer, Julio Diaz, furiously instructed his charge to stay focused but Bradley refused to change his strategy and attempted to bait Pacquiao into a big shot.

The official scorecards read two scores of 116-112 and a very wide 118-110 decision all for Pacquiao. The Spit Bucket scored the fight 114-114. Unlike their first encounter where Pacquiao was egregiously robbed of a clear win, this fight didn’t exactly produce a clear winner but did at least provide a winner free of controversy.

With the win, Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO) becomes the WBO Welterweight champion and finally erases any doubt that the back-to-back losses to Bradley and knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez has left him a diminished fighter. A fifth fight with Marquez is all but assured as long as Marquez defeats former Junior Welterweight champion Mike Alvarado next May.

Bradley officially loses the first fight of his career, dropping him to 31-1, 12 KO. The former two-division champion complained of sustaining a calf injury during the fight, but acknowledged that the right man won in the ring regardless of his impediment. If the pay per view numbers determines the rematch a success, it is likely that Bradley and Pacquiao will meet for a third time in the immediate future.