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May 9, 2011

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Pacquiao swats aside Mosley

MANNY Pacquiao of the Philippines retained his WBO welterweight title by recording a unanimous points victory over a lackluster Shane Mosley at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday.

The 32-year-old southpaw, despite being hampered by cramp in his left leg, dominated all 12 rounds against his defense-minded American opponent to improve his career record to 53-3-2 with 38 knockouts.

It was Pacquiao's 14th consecutive win since his loss to Erik Morales in Las Vegas in March 2005, and enhanced his status as the world's best pound-for-pound boxer.

Fighting for the second time since winning a seat in his country's national congress last year, Pacquiao gained one-sided verdicts from all three judges - 119-108, 120-108 and 120-107.

"It wasn't my best performance but I did my best," Pacquiao said ringside in front of a sellout crowd of 16,412. "My leg tightened up in the middle rounds and I couldn't move.

"This is the same problem I had when I fought (Juan Manuel) Marquez so we are going to have to work on this."

Pacquiao sent Mosley crashing to the canvas in the third round with a searing straight left but, despite pressing for the rest of the fight, he was unable to stop an opponent seemingly more interested in survival.

"I got him with a lucky shot," Pacquiao said of the knockdown. "Mosley is not slow. He is fast. He was waiting for me to make a mistake and he wanted to counter. I was careful with that."

"Sugar" Shane Mosley, an 8-1 underdog against the 10-time world champion, slipped to 46-7-1 with 39 knockouts and was booed for much of the bout because of his defensive approach.

"Manny is an exceptional fighter with good speed and power, power that I didn't get hit with before," the 39-year-old American said. "It was a strong knockdown punch. I really felt it. I was pretty stunned, surprisingly stunned."

Pacquiao made a minimum of US$20 million for the fight, while Mosley was guaranteed US$5 million.

In a bout on the undercard, Kelly Pavlik (37-2) beat Alfonso Lopez (21-1) by majority decision in the former middleweight champion's return from nearly 13 months out of the ring.

In another bout, former three-division champion Jorge Arce of Mexico (57-6-2, 44 KOs) stopped Wilfredo Vazquez of Puerto Rico (21-1-1) in the 12th round to claim Vazquez's WBO 55-kilogram belt.

In Copenhagen, Denmark, former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield beat Denmark's Brian Nielsen on a technical knockout in the 10th round on Saturday in his long-shot quest for one last title fight.

The bout was stopped after the 48-year-old Holyfield (44-10-2-1) pushed 46-year-old Nielsen (64-2, 43 KOs) into the corner in the 10th round and hit him several times with right-left combinations, causing the Dane to spit out some blood.

 

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