Pacquaio Outlasts, Outboxes Bradley in Unanimous Decision to get back the Title Belt

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Pac­quiao was knocked un­con­scious by Mar­quez in the sixth round of their fourth fight in late 2012, and he took near­ly a year off be­fore re­turn­ing for a work­man­like vic­to­ry over Bran­don Rios last fall. Pac­quiao’s last two per­for­mances prompt­ed Bradley to de­clare Pac­quiao had lost his killer in­stinct, not­ing he was un­able or un­will­ing to stop any of his op­po­nents since late 2009.

Bradley en­dured death threats and de­pres­sion be­fore re­turn­ing to the ring in un­usu­al­ly reck­less style. He brawled with Rus­lan Provod­nikov in March 2013 in a sen­sa­tion­al unan­i­mous-de­ci­sion vic­to­ry that si­lenced crit­ics of his style and heart. Bradley then out­point­ed vet­er­an Mex­i­can cham­pi­on Juan Manuel Mar­quez last fall, pol­ish­ing his skills and mak­ing him­self at­trac­tive to Pac­quiao for a re­match.

The two judges who scored the bout 115-113 for Bradley are no longer in the box­ing busi­ness, but their de­ci­sion end­ed Pac­quiao’s 15-fight win streak and forced Bradley to de­fend him­self against wide­spread crit­i­cism of the re­sult.

While Bradley re­mains pub­licly con­fi­dent he beat Pac­quiao in their first bout de­spite fight­ing on two in­jured feet, that much-de­rid­ed de­ci­sion sent both fight­ers’ ca­reers on wild spi­rals.

Bradley came on strong in the 12th, and the fight­ers’ heads col­lid­ed late in the round. Pac­quiao avoid­ed any trou­ble un­til the fi­nal bell, when he did a short dance step to his cor­ner.

Pac­quiao ap­peared to stag­ger Bradley late in the sev­enth round with a vi­cious com­bi­na­tion, but Bradley stood with his back against the ropes and de­fi­ant­ly en­cour­aged it, block­ing most of the shots. Bradley ap­peared to pre­tend to have wob­bly legs at one point af­ter a Pac­quiao miss, but his open mouth be­trayed his weari­ness while Pac­quiao steadi­ly racked up rounds mid­way through the fight.

The pace slowed in the fifth, with Bradley show­ing off his de­fense and move­ment while Pac­quiao at­tempt­ed to trap him against the ropes.

Pac­quiao land­ed a se­ries of big left hands in the ear­ly rounds, knock­ing back Bradley with gus­to. Bradley re­spond­ed im­pres­sive­ly in the fourth round, wob­bling Pac­quiao twice with a right hand.

The are­na was crack­ling with en­er­gy when both fight­ers made their ring walks, with Pac­quiao in the un­usu­al po­si­tion of go­ing first as the chal­lenger.

“It looked to me like Bradley was just go­ing for a one-punch home run,” Roach said.

Al­though Pac­quiao couldn’t knock down Bradley, he an­swered the ques­tions raised by Bradley about his killer in­stinct with a con­sis­tent at­tack all night. Bradley couldn’t match that con­sis­tent ag­gres­sion with coun­ter­punch­ing, ap­par­ent­ly try­ing and fail­ing to catch Pac­quiao out of po­si­tion.

“I didn’t want to get care­less,” Pac­quiao said. “I picked up more steam in the sec­ond half when I made ad­just­ments that Fred­die gave me in the cor­ner. Bradley was much bet­ter than in the first fight we had. He hurt me on the chin.”

Pac­quiao was more ag­gres­sive and ac­cu­rate from the open­ing min­utes of the re­match, stick­ing to train­er Fred­die Roach’s pleas to take the ac­tion to Bradley. They ex­changed big shots in the open­ing rounds, but Pac­quiao ap­peared to wear out Bradley with the heavy ear­ly pace – and the Pac­man nev­er slowed down.

Pac­quiao’s per­for­mance right­ed one of the big­gest per­ceived wrongs in re­cent box­ing his­to­ry. Pac­quiao was an eight-di­vi­sion world cham­pi­on on 15-fight win­ning streak when Bradley was award­ed a split de­ci­sion in their last bout.

Pac­quiao land­ed 35 per­cent of his 563 punch­es, while Bradley con­nect­ed with just 22 per­cent of his 627 blow. Pac­quiao’s jab was much more ef­fec­tive, land­ing 23 per­cent to Bradley’s measly 11 per­cent, and the Pac­man had a slight edge in land­ing 148 pow­er punch­es to Bradley’s 109.

“I tried, I re­al­ly tried,” Bradley said. “I want­ed that knock­out. Man­ny is a great fight­er, one of the best in the world. I lost to one of the great­est fight­ers in box­ing. I kept try­ing to throw some­thing over the top. That’s what we worked on in camp. That was the plan, but Pac­quiao has great foot­work.”

Af­ter the fight, Bradley said he in­jured his right calf ear­ly on. But he al­so ap­plaud­ed the de­ci­sion when it was an­nounced, and he con­grat­u­lat­ed Pac­quiao in the ring.

Judges Craig Met­calfe and Michael Per­nick scored the re­match 116-112 for Pac­quiao, while Glenn Trow­bridge fa­vored the Fil­ipino con­gress­man 118-110. The As­so­ci­at­ed Press scored it 116-112 for Pac­quiao.

“I knew I had to do more in this fight than I did in the last fight,” Pac­quiao said.

In the same are­na where the fight­ers met for their first bout, Pac­quiao left lit­tle doubt about the re­sult – al­though that’s what he thought last time, too. Bradley’s split-de­ci­sion vic­to­ry as­ton­ished most ring­side ob­servers, who felt Pac­quiao had earned a clear de­ci­sion.

Pac­quiao (56-5-2) pur­sued and pep­pered the pre­vi­ous­ly un­beat­en Bradley around the MGM Grand Gar­den ring with an ag­gres­sive ef­fort oc­ca­sion­al­ly re­call­ing the Pac­man in his prime. Bradley fought back with coun­ter­punch­ing and elu­sive­ness, but Pac­quiao kept up his at­tack while Bradley (31-1) strug­gled down the stretch.

Pac­quiao won a unan­i­mous de­ci­sion in his re­match with Bradley on Sat­ur­day night, aveng­ing his 2012 loss and claim­ing the WBO wel­ter­weight ti­tle.

.@MannyPacquiao beats @Timbradleyjr by unanimous decision to take title: http://t.co/3iLaKr1xWM pic.twitter.com/KmzlCuc5GB
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) April 13, 2014