Manny Pacquiao def. Adrien Broner, UD (117-111, 116-112, 116-112)
For the first time in his career, Manny Pacquiao entered the ring as a 40 year old man. But for the second time in a row, he turned in a solid performance en route to a unanimous decision win over Adrien Broner.
Pacquiao started the fight shockingly aggressive, coming out strong and showing that he still maintains an impressive hand speed. Pacquiao was particularly impressive throughout the fight when he managed to get Broner trapped against the ropes and unleash those fast combos. Broner though is a resilient fighter, and always managed to circle away, clinch, and avoid the sustained damage. Still, Pacquiao’s combination of jabs, body work, and combinations was too much for Broner. For his part, Broner tried to use counters to outland the legend, and at times he did have success with those, but it was not nearly enough.
With that win, Pacquiao extends his Hall of Fame caliber record to 61-7-2, while Broner falls to 33-4-1. In the post-fight interview, Pacquiao made it clear that his plan is to continue fighting, and so the question now is - against who? The big talk of the night was about Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather 2, a fight that many anticipate will happen later in 2019. Pacquiao said he was “willing” to take the fight if Mayweather was willing to come back. For his part, Mayweather refused to answer the question one way or the other.
Broner in his post-fight interview said he thought he won the fight and was not given a fair shake.
We’ll see what the future holds for Pacquiao, but for now, it’s another solid win in this late-career version of the Filipino politician and boxing legend.