Manny Pacquiáo has defeated Brandon Rios in a unanimous decision by the judges in Macao, China on Saturday night. Pacquiáo's speed and strength proved to be too much for Rios: The Filipino fighter out-landed Rios 281 punches to 138. Towards the final rounds, the fight seemed to be all-Pacquiáo's as Rios seemed to waver in the face of the brutal onslaught from the Filipino fighter. Yet unlike Pacquiáo's disasterous final rounds agains Juan Manuel Márquez, the 34-year-old boxer took his time defeating his opponent.
Manny Pacquiáo gave Brandon Rios quite a thrashing.The Filipino produced sharp, powerful boxing with a surprising combination of rhythmic straight lefts, rapid-fire flurries and accurate jabs when Rios was weakening. To Rios' credit, however, he managed to last the onslaught for the entirety of the fight. The Filipino boxer commended his opponent's stamina: "I tried to finish him, but my opponent did a great job," Pacquiáo said. "It's a long round. I was waiting. But I didn't want to get careless."
The final scores from the judges were 119-109 (Lisa Giampa), 120-108 (Michael Pernick) and 118-110 (Manfred Kuechler). For his part, Rios commented on the startling speed of Pacquiáo: "I fought one of the greatest boxers in the world besides Mayweather. The speed just got to me. I had fast sparring partners, but I think he was faster than them."
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