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LAS VEGAS–Governments across the world are filled with senators who address themselves as honorable. But there’s only one who can call himself champ. Meet the Honorable Manny Pacquiao, Senator Champ.
Pacquaio restored the championship part to his name with a WBO welterweight title he took from a game, yet overmatched Jessie Vargas on a pay-per-view card at Thomas & Mack Saturday night. A Pacquiao with a boxing title instead of political title is the one remembered in every part of the world outside of the Philippines.
At 37 years old, the fighter with titles in eight weight classes was not exactly that same any more. If he had been, his knockout drought wouldn’t be at seven years and counting. Make no mistake, his punches still sting. Vargas’ badly-bloodied right eye was evidence of that. But the opponents he would have stopped a decade ago are withstanding his punches now. Vargas did, although he was dropped by a straight right in the second round and it often looked as if he was perilously close to getting stopped in the late rounds.
“I was cautious,” said Pacquaio (59-6-2, 38 KOs), who expected to get at least $4 million and a percentage of the PPV buys. “I didn’t want to get drawn in and hit by a counter. I felt like I could do more. With every round, I thought I got closer to a knockout.”
But the KO never came, in part because of Vargas’ inherent toughness and some power of his own, especially in a dangerous right hand.
“I thought it was a very close fight,” said Vargas (27-2, 10 KOs), who collected $2.8 million. “It was a very fast chess match.”
What’s next? Pacquiao can only be sure that he goes back to work in the Filipino Senate on Tuesday. There’s bound to be intense speculation about who he’ll fight next, sometime in 2017. Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s presence in the crowd of 16,123 guarantees months of speculation on Twitter. Terence Crawford was there, too.
“We’ll see,” said the Senator, a champ who knows that boxing is sometimes as hard to predict as politics.
Valdez stops Osawa in 7
Oscar Valdez Jr. went to his knees in thanks. He celebrated in joy on top of trainer Manny Robles shoulders. He screamed. He cried. He did it all. Above all, he won.
A first-time featherweight champion became a two-time champ, blowing away Japanese contender Hiroshige Osawa with a seventh-round TKO in the final undercard bout Saturday on the pay-per-view card featuring Manny Pacquiao and Jessie Vargas at Thomas & Mack.
Valdez (22-0, 19 KOs), a two-time Mexican Olympian who grew up in Tucson, appeared somewhat tentative early in a defense of the WBO title he won in July. Osawa (30-4-4, 19 KOs), unknown outside of Asia, was taller and possessed a four-inch advantage in reach. But he had little else.
A deliberate and careful Valdez would begin to figure figure that out with devastating certainty in the fourth round. That’s when he put Osawa on the seat of his trunks with a left hand that was precise as it was long.
The inevitable was just three rounds away. Midway through the seventh, Valdez landed another left, backing up Osawa. Valdez pursued, step-for-step, with a blitz of punches that finally ended with the Japanese fighter defenseless and finished against the ropes.
Magdaleno thrives, survives for a stunner over Donaire
Speed and toughness. Quicksilver, then iron.
Jessie Magdaleno possessed a motherlode of both in an alloy that Nonito Doanire couldn’t capture, then couldn’t break Saturday in a terrific junior-featherweight bout for the WBO’s 122-pound title on the Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas card at Thomas & Mack.
Magdaleno (24-0, 17 KOs) took the belt from Donaire (37-4, 24 KOs), scoring a unanimous decision, first with speed that scored often and easily in the first few rounds. Magdeleno suffered a cut above his left eye in the fourth, but it didn’t bother him. Nothing did.
From the eighth round on, a slower Magdaleno caught one right hand after another from Donaire, who was surprised that the judges scored against him.
“Losing never crossed my mind,” said Donaire, who argued that he controlled the second half of the bout.
But he couldn’t finish Magdaleno. Donaire’s big right rocked Magdaleno’s head, sending his brightly dyed-shock of hair flying in every direction. The blows buckled his legs at the knees. They sent him crashing into the ropes. But nothing could send him into defeat. And nothing would.
Zou wins first major title in a one-sided decision
Sometimes, it was dull. Often, it was funny. In the end, it was a first, at least for Zou Shiming.
Zou, a Chinese icon for his three Olympic boxing medals, won his first pro title, the WBO’s flyweight version, with a decision over Thailand’s Prasitak Phaprom that was unanimous on the cards and one-sided in every way
In the first pay-per-view bout on the Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas card Saturday night at Thomas & Mack, Zou (9-1, 2 KO) eluded most of Phaprom’s punches with his reach and quick feet. But the Chinese fighter was never able to end the 12-rounder, a rematch.
He appeared more content to dance away or mock the Thai than finish him. In the sixth, Phaprom (39-2-2, 24 KOs) lunged at Zou in an attempt at landing a big punch. He swung for the fences and landed on his face. A Zou uppercut could have been there to meet him before met canvas. But Zou had already danced away.
It’s hard to know what’s next for Zou. But he has a major title and that could lead to some big money in China, especially in an Asian showdown with Japanese prodigy Naoya Inoue. Maybe easy money for Inoue, too, although he appears to be more interested in a tougher challenge against pound-for-pound king Roman Gonzalez
Brazilian gold medalist wins debut
-There was gold in Rio. There might be more in the United States. Brazilian lightweight Robson Conceicao, a gold medalist at the 2016 Olympics in August, flashed all of his potential with power that echoed throughout Thomas & Mack for a successful pro debut, a unanimous decision over Clay Burns (4-3-2, 4 KOs) of Alexandria, La
Teofimo Lopez prevails in five knockdown bout
There was nearly a knockdown a minute. In the end, only Teofimo Lopez was standing.
Lopez, a featherweight from Florida, scored four knockdowns, two in the first round and two more within 2:02 of the second, ending his debut in the second bout on the Pacquiao-Vargas undercard with a body shot for a knockout of Ishwar Siqueiros (3-2-2) of Mexico.
Russian prospect stays unbeaten
Alexander Besputin has trainer Robert Garcia and Sergey Kovalev manager Egis Klimas in his corner. Much is expected from the Russian junior-middleweight. His promise remains intact after forcing Panamanian Azael Cosio to quit after six rounds. Besputin (5-0, 5 KOs) got rocked a couple of times, but his energy never flagged in a performance that saw him repeatedly back up Cosio (20-5-2, 17 KOs) with movement and precise body shots.
First Blows: Fuentes opens Pacquiao-Vargas card with a decision over Chinese featherweight
With nearly as many people in the ring as there were in seats at Thomas & Mack, featherweights Fernando Fuentes and Xu Que opened the show.
Fuentes (9-7, 2 KOs), of Riverside Calif., landed the first punch and won the first fight on the Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas card Saturday, scoring a 58-56, 59-55, 58-56 decision in the Chinese fighter’s first loss. Xu (9-1-1, 2 KOs) proved to be elusive in the middle rounds, but could never sustain much of an attack in any round.
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