ARLINGTON, Texas: Manny Pacquiao battered a tough Antonio Margarito for 12 rounds in what is considered his best fight ever to win the World Boxing Council super welterweight (junior middleweight) title. Pacquiao won a one-sided unanimous decision to capture a record eighth title in as many weight classes.
?This win makes Pacquiao the best fighter I have ever seen in the last 50 years,? promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank said at the post fight conference.
The outcome was never in doubt since Pacquiao pummeled his Mexican-American for before 41,734 amazed fans at Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
Judges Jurgen Langos had it 120-108, Glen Crocker had it 118-110 and Oren Schellenberger had it 119-109 for Pacquiao. The Manila Times scored it 119-109, with Margarito winning only the sixth round when he pinned Pacquiao to the ropes and appeared to hurt him with combinations to the ribs.
Pacquiao gave his bigger foe a 17-pound weight advantage, 165-148, in a classic fight between speed and strength.
In the end, it was the Filipino boxing icon?s blinding speed that clearly spelled the difference, often landing unanswered combinations almost at will.
With Margarito?s left eye and nose bleeding in the 11 round and Pacquiao repeatedly connecting with combinations to the head and body, Pacquiao glanced at referee Laurence Cole as if signaling him to stop the fight.
But the iron-chinned Margarito just would not go down and just kept plodding till the end.
Pacquiao was generous in victory, lauding Margarito for his toughness in what his trainer Freddie Roach said could be Pacquiao?s best fight.
Margarito acknowledged that it was Pacquiao?s blinding speed that cost him the fight, even as scoffed at the question about him quitting when he was virtually unable to defend himself in the late rounds.
?No way, I?m a Mexican and we fight till the end,? Margarito said immediately after the fight, his face swollen from volume of punches he absorbed.
Punch statistics showed that Pacquiao connected threw more than 730 power shots, with 58 percent of them finding the mark.
With the victory, Roach said that his prized fighter?s record of eight titles might remain in the record books forever.
Pacquiao has won world titles at 112, 122, 126, 130, 135, 140, 147 and now 154 pounds.
His trainer and promoter said that this could be the last time Pacquiao, who in loved by fans for his willingness to fight the best opponents available, would compete at super welterweight.
Willing to fight Floyd Pacquiao said that he is willing to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. or anyone his promoter puts in front of him.
Arum said that other potential opponents for Pacquiao were ?Sugar? Shane Mosley, who has moved to Top Rank and Juan Manuel Marquez, the only major opponent to give PacMan real trouble in his title fights.
American fight historian Bert Sugar said that Pacquiao?s greatness went a notch higher in his eyes by his willingness to mix it up with the bigger, stronger Margarito.
According to CompuBox, Pacquiao landed a total of 474 punches, ranking him eighth all time in title fights in CompuBox?s 25-year history.
Most of these were power shots?a total of 411?or an average of 34 in every round.
He was most active in rounds four (43 of 62 power shots, or 69 percent), round five (40 of 60, or 67 percent), the 10th (57 of 89, or 64 percent), and in the 11th (51 of 75, or 68 percent).
Margarito landed a high volume of power punches too, connecting 135, or 43 percent of 312, but Pacquiao beat him to the punch often.
