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Steve KimESPN
After his impressive and dominant victory over Adrien Broner on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, what did we learn from Manny Pacquiao? And will he get a second shot at Floyd Mayweather?
The Pacman is still very good
Don’t let the official scorecards fool you, while they read 117-111 and 116-112 (twice) these tallies are actually very generous for Broner, who was hurt badly in both the seventh and ninth frames, and by the end of the night was in survival mode.
No, the Pacman isn’t in his prime and he’s no longer the dynamo he was from 2008 to around 2012 when he was rampaging through weight divisions in what was a historic run, but he is still an incredibly difficult fighter to defeat.
Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs) was simply too fast, too quick, too powerful, and ultimately too savvy for Broner (33-4-1, 24 KOs), who began the night by trying to lay counterpunching traps on Pacquiao, who never bit. And soon Pacquiao’s straight left hands to the body began to set up power punches over the top. And his consistent feinting, offset the timing of Broner.
Outside of a highly controversial decision loss to Jeff Horn on Horn’s home continent of Australia, since his 2015 loss to Floyd Mayweather (and more on him, later) Pacquiao could easily be 5-0 in his most recent bouts.
Age is just a number
Yes, Pacquiao is now at the tail end of his Hall-of-Fame career, but his performance on Saturday night had Sean Gibbons, the matchmaker for MP Promotions, stating, “40 is the new 20.” Well, that might be just a slight exaggeration but Pacquiao still has incredible footwork and give angles to his opponents that defy logic.
But the key for Pacquiao in training is the realization that, less is more.
“At the age of 40, the strategy, the training routine is the same but a little of adjustment for preparation, especially for the recovery,” explained the most notable senator from the Philippines. “I’m not young anymore, so sometimes if I push myself in heavy training, I can not recover in one night, so I have to rest to get my body to recover.”
Also he seems to have a heightened ring IQ, where once his aggressive style was susceptible to counter right hands, now with his usage of feints and being disciplined behind his jab, he is a much more elusive target in there.
Pacquiao would like another shot at Mayweather
So after defeating Broner, the question is will he get Floyd Mayweather in a rematch of their highly disappointing 2015 showdown that was much more sizzle than steak? While Mayweather in happy in retirement, Pacquiao, in the sunset of his career, has continued to face young, fresh foes like Broner, and thrashed them.
While many will roll their eyes at the possibility of Mayweather-Pacquiao II, you get the sense that much of the sell out crowd of just over 13,000 on Saturday night, still believe that a second go around would be different with a healthy, two-shouldered Pacquiao.
“My message is I’m still active, if he wants to go back to the ring, challenge me, I’m a champion,” Pacquiao said at the post fight press conference. “Get back to the ring and we’ll fight again — if he wants. But right now I will ask my promoter, Al Haymon, PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) for the future fights, the next fights.
But that possibility was shot down earlier by Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions.
“He’s (Mayweather) retired, he has not interest in doing that,” he stated, clearly. “It’s not always about the money, believe it or not.”
Well, given that Mayweather’s moniker is Money, it is actually hard to fathom.
“(Floyd) doesn’t have the motivation, the desire, he’s living his best life, traveling, running his multiple businesses, spending his hard earned earnings,” explained Ellerbe. “He’ll be 42 come February 24 and enough is enough. What good does it do you to earn all that money when you can’t stick around and spend it?
“He’s had a phenomenal career, he broke all the records, he has nothing else to prove, I’m very happy for him.”
Broner is going to be Broner
It turned out that there was only one thing bigger than Broner’s hubris in promoting this fight — his delusion. As the bell sounded to end the fight, “The Problem” celebrated as if he’d won, which brought about a negative reaction from the majority of fans that were in attendance.
And like many others in the city, he doubled down.
“My performance tonight talked for me, they thought I was going to come in here and be in the mud and they were just going to f–k me up and I gave them what they weren’t looking for. If you ask me — I thought I won the fight,” said Broner, as he addressed the media after the fight.
“I’m not about to sit here with a sad face, I’m alright, I will be back and be champion again… At the end of the day I’m still ‘AB’, I’m the same person.”