Manny Pacquiao was still licking his wounds following a definitive knockout loss at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez as Floyd Mayweather absorbed the adulation of the boxing world.
Mayweather had signed a mega six-fight deal with Showtime and went on to widely out-score both Robert Guerrero and Canelo Alvarez. As Mayweather defeated Canelo, Pacquiao was training for a comeback of his own, though it was far less grand. With questions surrounding his future in the prize ring, Pacquiao scheduled a bout against face-first slugger Brandon Rios.
Pacquiao Comes Back Against Overmatched Rios
Before we go on I’ll be candid, I predicted Rios to beat Pacquiao. It was one of my poorer predictions, granted, but it showed just how much uncertainty prevailed regarding the Pacman’s punch resistance at that point.
His defeat to Marquez was a devastating one and I just wasn’t confident that Pacquiao had the hunger to come back for more after a long and glorious career at the top of the sport.
With Rios moving up in weight, a sturdy set of whiskers and a decent punch, I proposed that he may be able to grind down a forlorn Pacquiao. The reality, in hindsight, made much more sense.
As it was, Pacquiao delighted in Rios’ come forward aggression, meeting him with far superior hand speed and punch accuracy. His output was decent and got the job done, but many at ringside were not overly impressed with the Filipino’s display.
That he couldn’t dispose of a limited yet gutsy brawler like Rios was viewed as a clear sign that Pacquaio was an entirely different force now, one less able to finish an opponent when they were below his level.
With a fairly routine win under his belt, Pacquiao was fast out of the blocks in 2014, agreeing to rematch Tim Bradley.
Pacquiao Earns Redemption Against Bradley
Just under two years on from the controversy of their first meeting, Pacquiao and Bradley met in Las Vegas to settle their score once and for all.
Interestingly, although the fight offered Pacquiao the opportunity to right a perceived wrong, it was billed as an opportunity for both. The reason for this being that Bradley felt disrespected for the way people guffawed at his decision win originally.
The fight itself began with Bradley fighting well, though it began to swing the other way when he opted to trade. Losing track of any gameplan, Bradley was out-boxed and lost on all three judges’ scorecards.
Temporarily losing context, some scribes penned this as the latest great win in Pacquiao’s legacy, but it was far from the legendary poundings he had dished out in the past.
Whatever the opinion, the critical thing for Pacquiao was the result. Victory would revitalize his stalled career; defeat was unthinkable. A fight with Mayweather looked a long way off, but at least Pacquiao was back to winning ways.
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