By James Ajero
Manny Pacquiao’s newest bid for yet another historic achievement fell flat against the World Boxing Council welterweight champion Mario Barrios in his daring return to boxing after a four-year lay-off.
Though the ring performance of “Pacman” at the MGM Grand Arena was impressive considering his age, his renowned footwork and hand-speed looked rusty, rendering him incapable of knocking down the bigger Barrios.
Another Pacquiao controversy
Pacquiao’s climactic return was spoiled by one judge scoring the bout in favour of the American pugilist, 115-113, while the other two scored it 114-114.
The fight, which was declared a majority draw, kept the WBC belt on Barrios’ waist,
but it could have been worse for the American if he had failed to halt Pacquiao’s aggression round by round.
However, the controversy stems from the popular observation that the 46-year-old Filipino fighter outworked the younger Barrios, and that Pacquiao was the better fighter and deserved to win the bout.
Punch statistics
While Barrios was deemed to be the clear loser in many of the fans’ eye tests, official punch statistics suggest that he was the more accurate puncher in the fight.
According to fight data, Pacquiao landed 101 of his 577 punches, a 17.5% accuracy rate against Barrios’ 120 out of 658 (18.2%).
As many boxing commentators say, jabs negate speed, and Barrios unleashed his jabs more effectively, landing 45 jabs to 423 thrown (10.6%).
Pacquiao had an even more abysmal record in jabs, making only 20 out of 312 thrown, a meager 6.3% rating.
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Pacquiao silences doubters
Many fans were skeptical of whether Pacquiao still had gas left in the tank to contend against younger fighters like Barrios.
These doubts were answered when Pacman, despite his diminished accuracy, systematically delayed Barrios from building up momentum for a massive assault.
Right from the opening round, the Filipino challenger targeted Barrios with his lead left hand for a potential right shot, dubbed as the “Manila Ice.”
It was in round three when the 30-year-old American began to pry open Pacquiao’s offense with jabs that disrupted Pacquiao’s rhythm.
In the middle rounds, Barrios was clearly trying to goad Pacquiao into a counterpuncher’s trap, like Juan Manuel Marquez did in 2012, which led to a phenomenal knockout of the Filipino.
Age catches up to Pacman
Through incomparable explosiveness combined with uncanny hand-speed, foot agility, and awkward angles – Pacquiao terrorized bigger opponents by utilising his multi-dimensional offense through lightning-fast combinations.
One of his best fights was his blood-letting of the 165-pound Mexican, Antonio Margarito in 2010, who was the boxing community’s pariah back then due to his hand wraps controversy.
Pacman gave Margarito a gladiator-level beating, with the Mexican later undergoing surgery due to a fractured orbital bone.
Some fans had hoped that Pacquiao would give Barrios a Margarito treatment: peppering the American with left hands to keep the latter pinned to the ring.
But one of the major takeaways of the Barrios fight was that Pacman is simply not the same fighter that he was in the 2010s, despite several moments of boxing brilliance between rounds.
Had Pacquiao won, he would have been the first active Boxing Hall of Famer to win a world title.
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