Pacquiao shakes off criticism and shows desire to come through with win.
Manny Pacquiao inflicted a first career defeat on Timothy Bradley with a unanimous points victory to regain the WBO welterweight title in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
The 35-year-old avenged his controversial loss in their first fight back in June 2012, and inevitably with the victory he reignited talk of a ‘superfight’ with rival Floyd Mayweather.
However, the Filipino will undoubtedly be delighted with avenging his loss to his American opponent, with many experts and supporters insisting that he clearly won the first meeting.
He left no room for controversy this time round with two of the judges scoring the bout 116-112 while the third saw it as a 118-110 win all in favour of Pacquiao.
“He threw a lot of punches and I didn’t want to be careless,” said Pacquiao. “In the second half of the fight, I listened to my corner and they told me to work on the timing of my punches.
“Freddie Roach told me to make adjustments and I did. Bradley was wild on the outside so I took it to the inside.”
It was an explosive start to the fight with Pacquiao looking to be the aggressor, but to Bradley’s credit he landed with some big counter right hands before a vicious third round saw both men trade blows.
Nevertheless, while the American appeared to be on top through the fifth, Pacquiao stepped up in the last half of the fight and the momentum shifted in his favour from the sixth onwards as he took advice from his corner.
While Bradley tired, he did have his moments, but they weren’t enough to convince that he was indeed the better fighter on the night, and now it remains to be seen whether or not the two fighters engage in a third encounter, or Pacquiao moves on to push for Mayweather or another top name in the division.
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