By Carlos Gonzalez: Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO’s) is back. He clearly defeated on the cards Brandon Rios (31-2-1, 23 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision this Saturday night in Macao , China. The judges very accurately scored the fight 120-108, 119-109, 118-110 in favor of Manny, who still is without any doubts one of the best pound for pound boxer in the business.
Pacquiao seemed a bit more cautious covering himself a lot more perhaps on the memory of his upset with Juan Manuel Marquez and was in the initial rounds awaiting a much better display from Rios. Pacquiao showed the boxing world that he is back in great form, He was as quick as always and with an amazing footwork that kept Rios running around trying to catch him on the ropes to fight in the inside in Rios´s style. Unfortunately for Rios, Manny is not Mike Alvarado.
Pacquiaio, a very experience and more intelligent boxer, did not allow Rios to fight in his preferred way and with extreme accuracy he was able to hit Rios from various angles and with an incredible range of Jabs, left hooks and uppercuts that were landing on Rios over and over again. There were occasions that if Manny would have followed some of those three hand combos with another punch he could have manage to knockout Rios.
Rios, a typical Mexican-American boxer, can take a good battering and not only that, he clearly enjoys it as well but last night there wasn’t any “Bam Bam” to be heard from Rios, and he could not even take one round in the contest that was a total mismatch. The fight was a bit boring some times as well due to the poor capabilities of Rios. He was slow and even looked exhausted at times as well, not great stamina. This was exposed on the judges’ cards at the end of the bout.
Pacquiao is still lighting quick when throwing all his punches and moves around the ring using his footwork like not many other boxers can , he is agile and accurate on his target. These are the characteristics that make him the only boxer out there capable of defeating Floyd Mayweather Jr. The only other boxer that I have seen giving Mayweather trouble was Cotto and always against the ropes were Mayweather had nowhere to run. Only two ways to beat Mayweather, fight him against the ropes which is clearly very difficult to maintain or you need to have the quickness of Manny Pacquiao. I believe Manny is ready for this fight and I know that all of us boxing fans have been ready for a long time. Please bring it on.
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