LAS VEGAS ? Manny Pacquiao came to fight, but all Sugar Shane Mosley cared for was to dance.
The fighter regarded as the top pound-for-pound in boxing today failed to finish off his tentative opponent and instead, settled for a lopsided 12-round decision to retain his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title Saturday night (Sunday in Manila).
Pacquiao, 32, knocked down Mosley in the third round with a searing left straight, but failed to put away the ageing and jolted challenger who survived the fight on his feet by back-pedalling and refusing to engage the rest of the way.
Judge Dave Moretti scored it 120-108, Duane Ford 120-107 and Glenn Trowbridge 119-108 for the Filipino boxing superstar, now 53-3-2, with 38 KOs, as he won for the 14th straight time. It was also his second successful title defense of the 147-pound belt he wrested from Miguel Cotto in 2009.
?He felt my power so he doesn?t want to go toe-to-toe with me,? said the congressman from Sarangani province of the punch that sent Mosley down glassy-eyed to the canvas for only the third time in his 18-year pro career.
Mosley kept intact his legacy of not having been knocked out in a fight, although his lackluster performance merited several chorus of jeers from the sellout crowd of 16,412 at the MGM Grand here.
?I don?t think he tried to win the fight,? Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach said point-blank. ?He just tried to survive.?
Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs), turning 40 a few months from now, acknowledged Pacquiao?s punching power which left him with a pair of welts below both eyes.
?He surprised me with that power with that knockdown,? said Mosley, wearing a sunglass as he faced the media during the post-fight conference. ?That?s the most legitimate knockdown on me in a long time.
?There were different punches that he threw that didn?t seem to be hard, but the impact definitely was hard. I really had to watch out for those particular shots he threw.?
Pacquiao, a 7-1 favorite on the night of the fight itself, connected on 134 of 284 power punches for a 47.2 percent accuracy. In contrast, Mosley had a higher percentage at 50.8, but landed only 31 out of 61.
In all, Pacquiao was the busier fighter, banging 182 of the total 552 punches thrown (33 percent), while Mosley only had 82 out of 260 (31.5 percent).
?I felt stronger than him and I thought I could finish him off,? said Pacquiao, who cited the cramps on his left leg for his failure to knockout the challenger, a certified future Hall of Famer.
?My legs tightened up during the fight and I couldn?t move.
It?s been happening to me more lately,? the eight-time world champion added.
Except for his occasional jabbing and some left hooks that found its way, Mosley was never really into the fight, repeatedly going to retreat mode every time Pacquiao pressed the action on him.
A clear shove by Mosley sent Pacquiao down on the floor in the 10th, which referee Kenny Bayless mistakenly ruled as a knockdown for a full 10-count.
Roach later said Bayless apologized to him `about missing (the call).??
But that only awakened the beast in Pacquiao to the wild cheers of the crowd. The champion relentlessly ran after Mosley and pummeled the former three-time title holder with a series of left-right combinations the rest of the round and the succeeding ones.
?I was surprised,? said Pacquiao of Bayless? standing count. ?I was angry.?
Roach had hoped the burst of emotion could have come a bit earlier.
?Manny got a little upset about the guy calling it a knockdown and seemed to be getting a little more aggressive. I wish that he had done that a little bit earlier and wish he got a little aggressive a little lot sooner,? said the five-time Trainer of the Year.
Stretched to a full 12-round fight for the third time in a row after similar lopsided unanimous decision wins over Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito, Pacquiao earned a guaranteed $20 million prize purse for drubbing the only man to have beaten Oscar De La Hoya twice.
Mosley earned $5 million.
