Boxing: Manny Pacquiao Dominates Jessie Vargas to Capture Another Title

Manny Pacquiao was a heavy betting favorite going into his bout with Jessie Vargas Saturday night and for good reason: He’s a future Hall of Famer who has won world titles in eight different weight divisions and Vargas has thus far taken on only one elite-level fighter.

When the smoke cleared from inside the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, “Pac Man” proved all of the so-called boxing experts right as he gave young Vargas a boxing lesson and won a (nearly) lopsided unanimous decision after 12 rounds.

Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) was his usual self as he moved side-to-side and bobbed and weaved his way inside, looking to land that magical left hand of his. Vargas was keen to avoid that punch and moved either back or to his own left, but it eventually found a home on Las Vegas kid’s chin more than once. Pacquiao delivered a perfect counter straight left down the pipe late in the second and once it connected, Vargas was down.

Vargas quickly picked himself up off the canvas, but from there, Pacquiao seized control of the fight and save for a few spurts of action here and there, he never relinquished it. Vargas (27-2, 10 KOs) was off-balance throughout the contest as he routinely missed wild and sloppy left hooks, but his best punch – the right hand – was able to find a comfortable place to land on the Filipino legend’s jaw from time to time. Unfortunately for Vargas, his punches never adversely affected the senator at all and he couldn’t dig himself out of the early hole he found himself in.

Vargas tried to rally late in an effort to pull a shocking come-from-behind victory, but Pacquiao was terrific in not only thwarting his attacks, but also in countering them. Vargas was cut over his right eye from a punch in the eight and said eye was swollen badly by the end of the fight. In the end, his best wasn’t quite good enough as Pacquiao won the decision. The scores all favored “Pac Man” via tallies of 118-109 (twice) and a head-scratching 114-113 to allow Pacquiao to snatch Vargas’s WBO welterweight title.

After the fight, after being pressed on who he would possibly fight next, Pacquiao said he would be willing to drop down to junior welterweight and fight Terence Crawford.

Oscar Valdez (22-0, 19 KOs) dominated Japan’s Hiroshige Osawa from the start and eventually stopped him with a violent flurry of punches. Valdez floored Osawa (30-4-4, 19 KOs) with a beautiful left hook in the fourth and after pounding away at his head and body for a few more rounds, he finished him off with a torrent of shots in the seventh. Osawa was rocked badly by another left hook and sagged into the ropes, allowing Valdez to tee off until the ref stopped it at the 1:50 mark to retain his WBO featherweight title.

Jessie Magdaleno became the second-ever Las Vegas native to capture a world title as he edged multi-divisional world champ Nonito Donaire over 12 rounds to win the Filipino’s WBO super bantamweight belt. The fight was a tactical affair for most of its duration, though there were plenty of pockets of back-and-forth action and Magdaleno was the sharper puncher throughout. In the end, Donaire (37-4, 24 KOs) was cut around both eyes and wasn’t as effective in the exchanges as the young lion was. Magdaleno (24-0, 17 KOs) was awarded the unanimous nod via tallies of 116-112 (twice) and 118-110.

In the opening bout of the Top Rank Pay-Per-View telecast, China’s Zou Shiming (9-1, 2 KOs) out-pointed Prasitak Phapron (39-2-2, 24 KOs) over 12 largely uneventful rounds. Shiming was too quick and accurate with his punches and won virtually every second of the fight, including scoring knockdown in the second. Shiming won on margins of 119-108 and 120-107 (twice0 to retain his WBO flyweight crown.