Manny Pacquiao scored six knockdowns Sunday. He didn?t stop Chris Algieri, and hasn?t stopped anyone since 2009. But six knockdowns don?t exactly mesh with ?washed up.?
Pacquiao did score a unanimous decision in the 12-round WBO welterweight title bout, fought at a catch weight of 144 pounds in Macau. The scorecards read 119-103, 119-103, 120-102, which is about as lopsided as scorecards get.
Still, that 2009 stoppage of Miguel Cotto is still seen as a standard Pacquiao (57-5-3) hasn?t quite met since then. Manny always has to prove, because of his knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012 and to a lesser extent, his since-avenged loss to Timothy Bradley, that he?s still better than pretty much anybody. Well, except Floyd Mayweather, who?s still dodging PacMan.
Algieri was a 7-1 underdog, but he knocked off Ruslan Provodnikov, who gave Bradley a lot of trouble. Algieri did suffer two first-round knockdowns in the June breakthrough against Provodnikov, but then Algieri?s ring generalship prevailed. Pacquiao skeptics felt Algieri might be able to frustrate Manny from long range, too.
Instead, Algieri barely mounted an attack. Despite a slip-up of a second-round knockdown Sunday, he gave Pacquiao trouble defensively until Manny managed to put him down twice in the sixth round — and even then Algieri wasn?t badly hurt.
That all changed in the ninth round, when Pacquiao landed a straight left that put Algieri on his back. Algieri soon took a knee, so that was the fifth knockdown of the fight, and then another jarring knockdown in the 10th sealed the deal.
Pacquiao may not have gotten the knockout, but at that point he didn?t need the knockout.
“The master boxer was given a master class by Professor Pacquiao tonight,” trainer Freddie Roach said. “I was disappointed in Algieri’s performance tonight. All he did was run.”
Algieri admitted that was futile. ?It’s not just his hand speed,” Algieri said. “He’s a great fighter. He does everything well. Manny has perfected his style of boxing.”
