Manny Pacquiao proved that age is just a number by outpointing Adrien Broner at 40 years old successfully defending his WBA welterweight title.
At the age of 40 years old, Manny Pacquiao proved that he still has something left in the tank by defeating Adrien Broner by unanimous decision to successfully defend his WBA welterweight title. It was a relatively passive fight that didn’t live up to the hype and wasn’t worth the $74.99 Showtime pay-per-view price tag.
Pacquiao controlled the action from bell to bell. This was a pure boxing match, and Pacquiao proved that his boxing skills are superior to Broner’s. He stalked Broner for the entire fight and Broner was content with backpedaling for the majority of the night.
Most of the rounds redundantly played out in this fashion. Broner was overly cautious, and he didn’t want to engage Pacquiao. The fight wasn’t completely boring, but it also wasn’t exciting. It went the way most predicted.
The fight statistics perfectly illustrate the tenor of this bout. CompuBox punch stats show that Broner wasn’t very active and that he only out-landed Pacquiao in two rounds which were rounds four and ten. At no point in the fight did Broner’s connects total in the double digits in a single round. This fight was decided more by what Broner didn’t do as opposed to what Pacquiao accomplished. Broner gave this fight away with inactivity.
The most productive round for Broner was the fourth where he hit Pacquiao eight times. He threw 31 punches but missed the majority of his shots. Pacquiao was able to effectively avoid the bulk of Broner’s punches in this round and the whole fight.
Pacquiao connected in the double digits in five rounds. His best was in round seven when he hit Broner with 19 punches. Although Pacquiao’s punch stats weren’t prolific, they were far better than Broner’s.
When the fight was over, Pacquiao landed a total of 112 punches compared to 50 for Broner. Pacquiao was also the more aggressive fighter throwing 568 shots to Broner’s 295. Broner was the loser in every statistical category, but somehow, he was surprised by the results.
Broner started his postfight interview with Jim Gray stating, “Bring your motherf**king a** over here. I have a lot to say.”
Gray warned Broner, “We’re going to conduct this interview professionally, or we’re not going to have an interview.”
Broner believed that he defeated Pacquiao which was met by a chorus of boos from the audience. He stated his beliefs emphatically in complete denial of the lackluster performance that he turned in. Gray tried to reason with Broner reminding him that he only accumulated eight punch connects in a single round. Broner didn’t appreciate hearing that statistic.
“It already sounds like you was [sic] against me,” said Broner. “I already ain’t got a fair shake talking to you.”
Broner ended his conversation with Gray by taunting him.
“I’m 3-3-1 in my last seven, but I’d be 7-0 against you,” exclaimed Broner.
Gray responded, “Well, that wouldn’t mean much. That’s the end of this interview.”
Broner’s performance was anemic, and Pacquiao’s was adequate. It’s not surprising that Broner reacted to the fight results with an absolutely skewed vision of reality. He’s shown an inability to take any responsibility for his actions inside of the ring and out. The only difference is that when he’s in the ring, he’s far more cautious than he is in daily life.
Pacquiao set himself up for a megafight against one of the welterweight division’s best, possibly Terence Crawford or the winner of Errol Spence Jr. vs. Mikey Garcia. Broner will probably fight again, but his days as a serious contender are over. However, his numerous legal problems outside of the ring might force him into early retirement at the age of 28.