SONAHR: April 10, 2016 – If Manny Pacquiao?s clash with Timothy Bradley on Saturday was, indeed, the Pacman?s finale, he has ended his storied boxing saga on a high note. In his third encounter with Bradley, Pacquiao captured a lop-sided unanimous decision, outscoring Bradley by scores of 116-110 on all three cards and taking his opponent?s WBO welterweight title. Manny punctuated his dominance with two knockdowns. He was unable to keep the fighter known as ?Desert Storm? on the canvas long enough to score a knockout. But then, no one else has ever stopped Bradley, even though he?s been decked more than once in his career.
So now the Pacquiao-Bradley series stands at two wins for Manny, and one for Bradley. Bradley?s win came in 2012, but it was a tainted victory, with almost no one other than the judges agreeing that Bradley had actually pulled off the upset. Pacquiao won decisively in the rematch two years later. And his triumph on Saturday was even more emphatic, as he produced the only knockdowns scored in the series.
If Bradley ever had a chance to score a clear-cut win over Pacquiao, this should have been it. In the wake of his disappointing performance against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May, Pacquiao had taken nearly a year off to recover from surgery to correct the shoulder injury that had hampered him in the multimillion-dollar superfight. Bradley, on the other hand, was on a roll, having scored a KO win over Brandon Rios, who had previously gone the distance with Pacquiao.
But Pacquiao was not to be denied. Reigniting much of the energy that propelled his exciting heyday, Pacman took the fight to Bradley and took away any momentum Tim might have thought he had coming into the bout. The Pacquiao who was in the ring on Saturday would have been troublesome for Mayweather. Had Mayweather not announced his retirement late last year, Pacquiao?s performance against Bradley would have made a second Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown a lot more attractive.
If both Mayweather and Pacquiao stick to their retirement plans, however, that bout will never be. Pacquiao can take satisfaction in knowing that he is going out a winner, and a champion. Plus, his final opponent, Bradley, is several cuts above the last man Mayweather faced ? the hapless, hopeless Andre Berto.
All the best to Manny in his post-ring endeavors. He?s been a gift not only to boxing, but to the world.
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Meanwhile, there?s a new heavyweight title-holder on the block ? Anthony Joshua, the British banger who won the super-heavyweight gold medal in the 2012 Olympics and went into his challenge of newly minted IBF champion Charles Martin with a record of 15 knockouts in 15 wins, with zero defeats or draws. In the shakeup of the heavyweight division following Tyson Fury?s upset of multi-beltholder Wladimir Klitschko last November, Martin scooped up the title the IBF had stripped from Fury for signing for a rematch with Klitschko. But Martin?s stoppage of Vyacheslav Glazkov in the contest for the vacant title was marred by a knee injury that rendered Glazkov unable to continue in the third round.
Thus Martin, who was also undefeated, had a lot to prove going into the Joshua match. In the end, all he proved was that he talks a much better fight than he can actually produce. Joshua crushed him in two rounds, scoring a pair of knockdowns in the process. Martin argued that he had beaten the referee?s count after the second trip to the canvas. But if Joshua had been allowed to hit him again, Martin may well have ended up going down three times from the same punch, as Trevor Berbick did at the hands of Mike Tyson 30 years ago.
Now Joshua joins a crowd of heavyweights at the top, including Fury, WBC champ Deontay Wilder, and WBA who-the-hell-knows-what title-holders Luis Ortiz and Lucas Browne. Throw in ex-champion Klitschko, who just might have it in him to avenge his loss to Fury, and you?ve got a heavyweight division that has entered into the proverbial ?interesting times? after a decade of dull Klitschko dominance.
