Pacquiao outclasses Rios in Macau

MANNY Pacquiao returned to winning ways with a sharp performance to beat Brandon Rios via unanimous decision in China.Pacquiao lost his last two fights to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez, but dominated the overwhelmed but stubborn Rios from the very beginning.
It can be easy to forget that in his controversial decision loss to Bradley, Pacquiao had the fight won in the eyes of most. And even though he was spectacularly stopped by Marquez in their fourth encounter, the Filipino was ahead on the scorecards up to that point.
Rios, who raised his profile with a pair of thrilling slugfests with Mike Alvarado, took pride in soaking up Pacquiao’s best shots but was never really in the contest.
That said, two judges appeared to be in charitable moods as they gave the defeated fighter rounds in what was essentially a one-sided shut-out. 120-108, 119-109 and 118-110 were the official scores while the unofficial British Eurosport-Yahoo! scorecard had a Pacquiao sweep at 120-108.
Rios ran the risk late on of dropping a further point for excessive holding as he tried throughout to turn Pacquiao’s boxing clinic into a slugfest, but the former eight-weight world champion was too fast and too sharp on the outside for the gameplan to stand a chance.
With a swollen right eye and blood trickling down from above the left, Rios could easily have been withdrawn at any point from the eighth round onward, but will take a solace in withstanding the Pac-Man onslaught for 45 minutes as well as his considerable payday.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, will avoid the 40% tax which comes from battling Stateside.
“I wanted to give a good show and prove I have recovered from the knockout defeat,” Pacquiao explained after the victory.
“I learned after that fight to be very careful when coming forward and throwing punches. Rios is one of the toughest opponents I have fought in my career, though, and I was surprised he was still standing after 12 rounds.”
“It was important to bring this to my people especially after the typhoon and my people are so happy right now. I thank my fellow countrymen for all of their support.”
Pacquiao refused to be drawn on who he would fight next, but admitted that he has not ruled out an in-ring return to the US.
“I do not know who I will fight next, that is up to the promoters,” he said. “But I would very much like to fight in Las Vegas again next.” (Eurosport)

(By Liam Happe )

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