Manny ‘Pac Man’ Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) looked like he found the Fountain of Youth tonight in beating WBA Super World welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman (29-1, 21 KOs) by a clear cut 12 round split decision on Saturday night to dethrone the Florida native at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Pacquiao-Thurman fight was shown on Fox Sports Pay-Per-View.
After the fight was over, Thurman, 30, raised his hands in celebration, as if he felt he had done enough to get the victory. However, the judges saw it differently in giving the win to Manny by a 12 round split decision.
Pacquiao, 40, knocked Thurman down in round one, and dominated the majority of the first six rounds of the contest. Although Thurman crept back into the fight in the second half of the fight with his power punching, he couldn’t do enough to make up for all the early rounds tat he’d given away.
Manny definitely faded down the stretch of the fight, but he pulled it together well in rounds 10 and 12 to get the victory. Pacquiao hurt Thurman with a body shot in round 10, and hurt him again in the 11th.
The scores were 115-112, 115-112 for Manny, and 114-113 or Thurman. The 115-112 score is identical to that of Boxing 247. We had Pacquiao winning by a 115-112 score. He built up a big enough lead in the first half of the fight to where t was nearly impossible fr Thurman to come back from that huge deficit in the second half.
Thurman has lost a lot from his game
You can argue the Thurman from 2017 would have won tonight. He was faster, more powerful, and a better back then compared to what we saw tonight. The two years that Thurman was out of the ring due to a hand and elbow injury took something from his game, and that he’s not going to be able to bring back. In Thurman’s comeback fight last January against Josesito Lopez, he blamed his less than spectacular performance on ring rust.
That was a convenient excuse at the time, because he was coming off of a 22 month layoff. But now that Thurman has fought for the second time since he’s been back, it’s clear that he’s not going to be able to return to being the fighter that he was in the past. That Keith Thurman is gone forever. The one that we saw tonight is still a good fighter, but he’s not one that can beat the elite welterweights like Pacquiao, Errol Spence Jr. or Terence Crawford. The way Thurman looked tonight, he would have lost to Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter in rematches.
Pacquiao vs. Thurman undercard results
Yordenis Ugas dominates Omar Figueroa Jr.
Former WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa Jr. (28-1-1, 19 KOs) tasted defeat for the first time in his 11 year pro career in 12 round unanimous decision to former world title challenger Yordenis Ugas (24-4, 11 KOs) in WBC welterweight title eliminator. Ugas knocked Figueroa Jr. down in round one, and went on to win by the scores 119-107, 119-107 and 119-107. Figueroa Jr. was going to get beaten sooner or later, as he hasn’t been active enough in the last four years. This was only his third fight since 2015. The inactivity and moving up in weight two divisions further hurt Figueroa Jr.
All Results
Sergey Lipinets TKO 2 Jayar Inson
Luis Nery KO 9 Juan Carlos Payano
Caleb Plant TKO 3 Mike Lee
Efe Ajagba UD 10 Ali Eren Demirezen
Abel Ramos TKO 4 Jimmy Williams
Genisis Libranza TKO 4 Carlos Maldonado
John Leo Dato TKO 5 Juan Antonio Lopez