By Mike Smith: Manny Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) jumped out to a big lead in the first half of the fight and then held on to defeat previously unbeaten WBA Super World welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman (29-1, 21 KOs) by a 12 round split decsion on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Nevada. The scores were 115-112, 115-112 for Pacquiao, and 114-113 for Thurman. Boxing News 24 scored for Manny 115-112.
The 40-year-old Pacquiao knocked Thurman down in round one, and then later hurt him with a body shot in round 10. Thurman had rallied in the second half of the fight, and it looked like he was going to even it up. But a beautiful surge from Pacquiao in rounds 10 and 12 helped him seal the victory.
Thurman, 30, fought his heart out, but he didn’t have the speed to deal with Pacquiao’s attacking style off offense. The high volume from Manny really bothered Thurman, because there wasn’t much he could do. Thurman couldn’t match Pacquiao’s high work rate. So in the second half of the fight, Thurman got on his bike, and played hit and run. He had talked of wanting to fight like that earlier this week, but said he didn’t want to have to do it.
In this case, Thurman had no choice but to fall back onto his hit and move style, but it still didn’t work well enough for him to get the ‘W’ tonight. Thurman’s problem is he gave away too many of the early rounds, and he was in a desperate situation in the second half of the fight.
Thurman was bleeding from the nose an eyes early from the heavy shots that Pacquiao was hitting him with.
Yordenis Ugas decisions Omar Figueroa Jr.
Yordenis Ugas (24-4, 11 KOs) defeated former WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa Jr. (28-1-1, 19 KOs) by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in a WBC welterweight title eliminator,
The judges’ scored it for Ugas 119-107, 119-107 and 119-107. Boxing News 24 had an identical score of 119-107 for Ugas. Figueroa Jr. is too small and too weak to be fighting at 147. He looked flabby tonight and ill suited for the welterweight division.
Ugas dropped Figueroa Jr. in the first round after landing a hard shot to the head. Figueroa Jr. spent most of the fight on the inside, and he was clearly the better guy in close. However, Ugas did a good job of tying him up. The referee Russell Mora docked Ugas a point for holding in the fifth, but that did little to stop him from continuing to hold.
Ugas used his size and power to dominate
As the fight progressed, Ugas used his superior size and punching power to nail Figueroa Jr. with shots when he would plot forward looking to fight on the inside. Ugas landed a lot of heavy blows in the fight. It was so one-sided that match should have been stopped at some point to save Figueroa Jr. for another day. He can still be a good fighter at 140 and 135, if he can make it back down to those weight classes. But at 147, Figueroa Jr. has no place in that division. He’s not big enough.
With the win, Ugas is now the mandatory challenger to WBC welterweight champion Shawn Porter. Ugas lost to Porter by a controversial 12 round split decision last March in Carson, California. A lot of boxing fans felt that Ugas won.
Sergey Lipinets stops Jayar Inson
Former IBF light welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets (16-1, 12 KOs) his hopelessly over-matched replacement opponent Jayar Inson (18-3, 12 KOs ) in the second round. Lipinets nailed Inson with a left to the head that put him down face first on the canvas.
Referee Jay Nady then halted the fight. The official time of the stoppage was at 0:57 of round two. Lipinets was supposed to have been fighting John Molina Jr., but he pulled out of the fight on Friday complaining of a back injury.
The little known Inson was brought in to take Molina’s place despite the fact that he’d lost his last fight to Johnathon Steele (9-4-1, 6 KOs) by an eight round split decision last January. It might have been better if Lipinets’s promoters had picked out Steele as his the replacement for Molina rather than the guy that he beaten in Inson.
The win for Lipinets is his third since moving up to the welterweight division last year in August. Since moving up in weight, Lipinets has beaten Lamont Peterson, Erick Bone and now Inson. Lipinets looked like a stronger fighter at 147 than when he was fighting at 140. He lost his IBF 140 lb title to Mikey Garcia last year in March.
Luis Nery stops Juan Carlos Payano
Former WBC bantamweight champion Luis ‘Pantera’ Nery (30-0, 24 KOs) had a harder time than expected in stopping former WBA 118 pound champion and two-time Olympian Juan Carlos Payano (21-3, 9 KOs) in the ninth round.
The southpaw Nery, 24, struggled with Payano for the first seven rounds of the fight, but he then took over in the eighth round, and stopped him with a vicious right hand body shot in the ninth.
Nery wore Payano down with power shots
Payano fought well in the first six rounds in fighting the much younger 24-year-old Nery to a standstill. However, the fight changed at the halfway point in the contest when Nery started to land a lot of heavy shots to the head and midsection. It was clear that Payano was slowly wearing down, and the fight was going to need to be stopped at some point. The pressure that Nery began to put on the older fighter did a number on Payano, and he folded.
For the boxing fans not familiar with Nery, they were surprised to see Payano getting stopped. They had seen Payano fight many times in the past, and remember him for some of his thrilling fights, Nery was too young, too talented, and much too strong for the aging Payano. The fight had knockout written all over it the moment the contract was signed by both fighters. Payano was too old to compete for more than six rounds against the young lion Nery.
Payano, 35, had recently been knocked out in the first round by Naoya Inoue last October in Yokohama, Japan. That alone put Nery in an impossible situation where he would gain little in fighting Payano. Inoue’s knockout performance of Payano obviously was far superior to what Nery did tonight
Caleb Plant stops Mike Lee
In a disappointing mismatch, IBF super middleweight champion Caleb ‘Sweet Hands’ Plant (19-0, 11 KOs) destroyed previously unbeaten Mike Lee (21-1, 11 KOs) in a third round knockout. Plant, 28, dropped the 32-year-old Lee four times in the fight before it was stopped in round three. Lee was down once in round one, and three more times in the third round. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:29 of round three.
Lee was selected by Plant’s promoters from the light heavyweight division for him to fight. It’s unclear why Lee was selected though, because he’s not widely known by casual boxing fans, and he was ranked at the bottom of the IBF’s top 15 at 175. They could have found someone better than Lee for Plant to defend his IBF title against. David Benavidez would have been a good option. Although Lee came into the contest tonight as unbeaten fighter, he’d never fought anyone remotely good. Most of his wins had come against little known second tier opposition. The victory for Plant was his first defense of his IBF 168 pound title that he won last January in beating Jose Uzcategui by a 12 round unanimous decision.
Other results
Efe Ajagba UD 10 Ali Eren Demirezen
Abel Ramos TKO 4 Jimmy Williams
Genisis Libranza TKO 4 Carlos Maldonado
John Leo Dato TKO 5 Juan Antonio Lopez
Caleb Plant TKO 3 Mike Lee