By Keith Idec

LAS VEGAS – Virtually everyone inside MGM Grand Garden Arena reacted the same way when Adrien Broner claimed he had beaten Manny Pacquiao.

Everyone except Pacquiao, apparently. Pacquiao didn’t disrespect Broner during their post-fight press conference when he was asked about Broner’s bizarre contention that he won a bout Broner clearly lost.

The Philippines’ Pacquiao suspects Broner’s initial reaction was based on the crowd overwhelmingly favoring Pacquiao on Saturday night.

“We cannot blame him,” Pacquiao said. “We cannot – I mean, he’s overwhelmed by the reaction of the fans. I’m sure he will review the fight and think about it.”

By the time Broner arrived at the press conference, he was less demonstrative about beating the 40-year-old Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs) than he was when Showtime’s Jim Gray interviewed him in the ring.

“If you ask me, I feel like I won the fight,” Broner said. “Hell, yeah, I believe I won the fight.”

Each of the three judges – Tim Cheatham (116-112), Glenn Feldman (116-112) and Dave Moretti (117-111) – scored Pacquiao the winner by comfortable margins. Pacquiao buzzed Broner badly during the seventh and ninth rounds, but the resilient, resourceful Broner withstood all those troublesome moments.

Though he displayed toughness, Broner (33-4-1, 24 KOs, 1 NC) didn’t throw nearly enough punches to win – a common problem for the four-division champion.

According to CompuBox’s unofficial statistics, Broner landed only 50 overall punches, an average of just 4.2 per round.

CompuBox credited Pacquiao for landing 62 more overall punches than Broner (112-of-568 to 50-of-295). CompuBox counted more power punches (82-of-197 to 39-of-180) and jabs (30-of-371 to 11-of-115) for Pacquiao.

Somehow, though, the Cincinnati native contended he did more than enough to top Pacquiao in their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event.

“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 [Mayweather].”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.