By Keith Idec
LAS VEGAS – When the final bell sounded late Saturday night, Adrien Broner jumped on the ropes and engaged the crowd.
It was an immediate indication that Broner believes he did enough to beat Manny Pacquiao in a fight Pacquiao obviously won. When Showtime’s Jim Gray interviewed him in the ring a few minutes after Pacquiao was announced a unanimous-decision winner, Broner oddly argued that he deserved the victory in their 12-round welterweight title fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
“If you ask me, I feel like I won the fight,” Broner reiterated during the post-fight press conference. “Hell, yeah, I believe I won the fight.”
More than hour earlier, Broner was even more demonstrative in expressing to Gray his opinion on the decision.
“I beat him,” Broner told Gray. “Everybody out there knows I beat him. I controlled the fight. He was missing. I hit him clean more times. I beat him.
“Let me let all you know, I wanna thank the whole hood who came out here. You know I beat that boy. They are trying to get that money with Pacquiao and Floyd.”
Cincinnati’s Broner (33-4-1, 24 KOs, 1 NC) claimed that the three judges scored their fight for the 40-year-old Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs) by big margins because the plan is to make what would be a very lucrative rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr., who once mentored Broner. Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, said during the post-fight press conference that Mayweather won’t end a third retirement to oppose Pacquiao again.
Judges Tim Cheatham (116-112), Glenn Feldman (116-112) and Dave Moretti (117-111) all scored Pacquiao a decisive victor over Broner. Pacquiao hurt Broner badly during the seventh and ninth rounds, but Broner survived both times and made it to the final bell.
According to CompuBox’s unofficial statistics, Broner landed just 50 overall punches during their 12-round bout.
CompuBox credited Pacquiao for landing 62 more overall punches than Broner (112-of-568 to 50-of-295). Pacquiao landed more power punches (82-of-197 to 39-of-180) and jabs (30-of-371 to 11-of-115), according to CompuBox.
“At the age of 40, I can still give my best,” Pacquiao said. “Although I wanted to be aggressive more, my camp told me, ‘Don’t be careless,’ and to counter him and wait for opportunities.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
