Manny Pacquiao thrashed Antonio Margarito from pillar to post Saturday in Arlington, Texas. Pacquiao landed vicious power shots in every round, winning a unanimous decision that earned him the eighth world title of his career, the WBC light middleweight belt.
Outweighed by 17 pounds, Pacquiao (52-3-2) was theoretically at a power disadvantage against Margarito (38-7), which was the main reason Pacquiao didn’t actually knock out the California-born Mexican. It was one of the most pleasing displays of Pacquiao’s career, although he seemed to be walking a tightrope more than usual and did get hit more than usual.
Pacquiao belted Margarito cautiously in the first two rounds as the taller man tried to establish a jab seldom seen in his career. But Pacquiao’s quickness enabled him to land several left crosses to the body and a few to the head in the third, and then he started landing lefts to the head at will, opening up a huge laceration under Margarito’s right eye.
The body attack paid a huge dividend in the fourth when a left cross to the beltline stunned Margarito and a stoppage seemed possible that early. Margarito staggered through the duration, but by the final two rounds, Pacquiao was imploring referee Laurence Cole to stop it.
“I felt pity for my opponent,” Pacquiao explained. “In the 12th I wasn’t looking for the knockout. We took it easy.”
He didn’t say that about the fight overall. “He’s very tough and strong,” Pacquiao said. And when Manny tried to coast through the sixth, seventh and eighth by loading up less and boxing more, Margarito cornered him a couple of times. “I got hurt by the uppercut,” Pacquiao admitted.
The eighth round, probably the one that included that particular uppercut, was the one typical Margarito round, as he stalked in zombie mode, as though the ton of bricks with which Pacquiao had already assaulted him couldn’t stop him. When Margarito kept coming like that against Miguel Cotto in 2008, he gradually wore him down.
But Pacquiao continued to belt Margarito at will, stepping up the pace in the ninth round and landing incessantly in the 10th, connecting on 57 of 89 power punches according to CompuBox.
Pacquiao landed 401 of his 713 power shots overall, which reflects the brutal beating he administered.
Say all you want about Margarito’s weight advantage propping him up, but he never gave up, dispirited though he was much of the fight. I would have stopped the fight after the 10th round if I had been in Margarito’s corner, but trainer Robert Garcia said that was never an option.
“Tony’s a warrior, and he would have never let me stop the fight,” Garcia said.
Pacquiao wasn’t talking about quitting either, despite his desire to concentrate on his work as a congressman in the Philippines. “I am still strong and will continue to fight,” Pacquiao said.
Against Floyd Mayweather? “I am not afraid to fight anyone.”
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