Manny Pacquiao defeated Brandon Rios by unanimous decision Sunday morning in Macau for his first victory in over two years. He looked fast and powerful, and he proved to be the championship-caliber fighter he was prior to getting leveled by Juan Manuel Marquez last year.
Pacquiao destroyed Rios for nearly the entire fight. One judge had it a 12-0 shutout for Pac-Man, while another gave Rios a round and the third judge gave him two rounds.
Pac-Man delivered a devastating combination of shots to Rios’ body and head, and landed more than twice as many punches as his counterpart. Most of his damage was done to the body, where stats show he landed 241 of his 281 punches. Rios hit Pacquiao with a fair amount of body shots and landed 138 punches overall, but he spent most of the fight covering up and trying to protect himself.
Rios admitted after the fight that Pacquiao’s speed was too much.
“The speed got me a little bit,” Rios told HBO’s Max Kellerman.
Though the stats and outcome show Pacquiao dominated Rios, the Filipino actually said Rios was one of his toughest opponents.
“I consider this one of the toughest fights of my career,” said Pacquiao, who improved to 55-5-2 (38 KOs).
Rios came out of the fight with swelling and a huge bruise below his right eye.
He described Manny as “very fast” and “very awkward” in style, while also calling him one of the best fighters in the world, along with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Though he was thoroughly defeated, Rios did enough damage to put a mouse under Pacquiao’s right eye.
Manny, being the thoughtful and caring fighter that he is, said after the fight that he was dedicating his victory to his countrypeople affected by Typhoon Haiyan.
