Manny Pacquiao W UD12 Brandon Rios
It was ironic that the beautiful Venetian Resort in Macau, China officially began their Christmas season this weekend? because in their eagerly awaited prize-fight, Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao returned to form fighting for the first time in over a year when he lit Brandon Rios up like a Christmas tree. It was a one sided slaughter from start to finish with the prideful Rios sauntering forward wile Pacquiao used speed, precision and accuracy to dish out a violent beating over twelve one-sided rounds. Pacquiao started out quickly and found a home for the straight left down the pipe. The Filipino may have been denied an early knockdown when he dropped Rios with a left as the fighter were tangled in close. Rios weathered the early storm and asserted himself with clinches in Round 2 but Pacquiao remained quick and was landing the harder shots early. Pacquiao utilized good movement in the first half of the bout and while Rios came forward as the aggressor he had little success as he was kept off balance most of the time. Pacquiao turned Rios well and got off his fast shots before Rios would grab him and try to get his work in during brief clinches.
Any time Pacquiao would move to his right, Rios was lost and had to reset. The pride of the Philippines used this to great success as he continued to light up Rios through the middle rounds before moving away out of any possible return fire. Pacquiao grew more and more accurate with each passing round and by the eighth Rios was swelling and bleeding around both eyes.
In pre-fight activities Brandon Rios warned everyone that he was not brought to Macau to be anyone?s punching bag, but slowly over the course of the fight he turned in to just that. Down the stretch and into the championship rounds the one-sided beating grew worse and worse and Pacquiao continued to fire away (and land) without pause or mercy.
Rios showed an iron chin and a ton of resolve to walk through it like a man possessed, but he was doing nothing but absorbing a tremendous amount of punishment.
In the twelfth and final round both fighters seemed to resign themselves to the fact the one sided bout was going to the scorecards. Rios was a battered and beaten man and after Pacquiao began to pour it on in the first minute of the final stanza, Rios wilted and (for the first time in the bout) walked meagerly backward the ropes.
Pacquiao, advancing as though he was going for the kill? stopped. Maybe it was mercy. Maybe it was a flashback to Round six against his nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez one year earlier? but for whatever reason Pacquiao nodded at Rios and backed off.
From that moment both men went through the motions until the final bell rang, effectively ending the slaughter.
The scores were read as 120-108 and (being very generous to Rios) 119-109 and 118-110 on the final two tallies.
