This weekend, Manny Pacquiao did what 30 previous opponents couldn’t do; defeat Keith Thurman.
Boxing’s only eight-division world champion, Senator Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao dropped Keith “One Time” Thurman in round one and won a close split decision to earn a welterweight world title. The win made Pacquiao the oldest welterweight champion in boxing history.
.@MannyPacquiao with a massive body shot in the 10th!
Eight-division World Champion Manny Pacquiao faces World Champion Keith Thurman for WBA supremacy! BUY NOW: https://t.co/AeIXwbC2Dr pic.twitter.com/zkBRF3Uc2G
— FOX Sports: PBC (@PBConFOX) July 21, 2019
The fight was a main event of a Premier Boxing Champions on FOX Sports Pay-Per-View event onSaturday night from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
“It was fun,” said Pacquiao. “My opponent is a good fighter and boxer. He was strong. I’m not that kind of boxer who talks a lot; we were just promoting the fight. I think he did his best, and I did my best. I think we made the fans happy tonight because it was a good fight.”
The sell-out crowd of 14,356 got treated to great action from the start, as an exciting first round was capped off by Pacquiao dropping Thurman for the first time in his career with a straight right hand late in the round.
Pacquiao had a large advantage in jabs landed, connecting on 82 to Thurman’s 18. The 192 power punches landed by Thurman was the most in 43 Pacquiao fights that CompuBox has tracked. Round-by-round, the two fighters were only separated by more than five landed punches in rounds two, seven and nine.
After 12 rounds, the judges reached a split decision, with one judge scoring the fight 114-113 for Thurman, overruled by two judges scoring it 115-112 for Pacquiao, who captured the WBA Welterweight World Championship at 40-years-old.
The Best Ever?
Ironically, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. was in attendance and a co-promoter of the fight.
The two have flirted with a rematch of their now historic 2015 matchup that left Mayweather the victor of a unanimous decision.
However, Pacquiao’s defeat of Adrien Broner and now Keith Thurman begs the question of if he is the best fighter of this generation.
Each generation has their standouts: from “Sugar” Ray Robinson, to Rocky Marciano and the greatest Muhammad Ali.
However, when you add up wins vs. losses, of course Floyd Mayweather, Jr., will always stand out as the undefeated 5-division world champion. He also stands as the richest boxer ever making a billion dollars over the course of his entire career.
Still, Mayweather has always been the most famous cherrypicker in boxing. After Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather’s “retirement” fight was against Andre Berto.
Although Berto is a beast that brings it every time, he was not the top in the welterweight division at that time. Keith Thurman was as the only other welterweight world champion at that time.
However, Mayweather didn’t fight him and instead, returned to fight boxing debutante Conor McGregor for the “Money Fight”.
Mayweather notoriously loves his self-affirming title of “TBE”. But in light of Pacquiao’s bravery in facing a Thurman ten years his junior and demolishing him, is he a better fighter than Mayweather for taking on the best?
You can never take away Mayweather’s defensive and financial brilliance. But after seeing Pacquiao continue his legacy of greatness, Mayweather’s Midas touch is starting to look like the mineral pyrite; fool’s gold.
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