Manny Pacquiao cruises to victory over Jessie Vargas with Floyd Mayweather Jr. at ringside
Reporting from Las Vegas — Manny Pacquiao looked up to fight and glanced at ringside, where he locked eyes with his guest and rival Floyd Mayweather Jr., smiling and waving at the unbeaten, retired champion with his right glove.
Pacquiao then proceeded to decisively beat a champion in Jessie Vargas who’s 10 years younger with other attributes that Pacquiao defused with his power, smarts and speed.
“Not bad,” Mayweather told a reporter behind him, further fueling speculation that a rematch of the richest fight in history is coming in 2017.
A month shy of his 38th birthday, Pacquiao (59-6-2) did his part by beating Vargas (27-2) by scores of 114-113 (Dave Moretti), 118-109 (Glenn Feldman) and 118-109 (Glenn Trowbridge) on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Moretti awarded Vargas five of the first six rounds.
“I’m so happy with my performance. I tried every round to knock him down,” Pacquiao said. “I’ll fight whoever the people want me to fight. I am not going to pick my opponent.”
Pacquiao knocked down Vargas in the second round by striking Vargas on the nose with a left hand, and he challenged the power of the boastful Vargas, beating him to the punch with creative angles and faster hands.
“Fighting Manny Pacquiao is like playing a very fast game of chess,” Vargas said. “You have to be alert at all times. There were a lot of punches coming in.”
Pacquiao said he was thrilled with his showing, which in the 12th round looked a little bit as if he pulled a chapter from Mayweather’s playbook by landing several punches and effectively retreating from right-handed Vargas punches that did land a few times.
Asked if he will fight Mayweather next, Pacquiao said, “We’ll see.”
His showing pleased his veteran trainer Freddie Roach, who watched Pacquiao balance a workload as a senator in the Philippines for six weeks during training camp before arriving in Hollywood to conclude preparations.
The victory gave record seven-division world champion Pacquiao the World Boxing Organization welterweight belt for a fourth time.
“I’m so proud of Manny,” Roach said. “He had a killer schedule and only Manny could complete it.”
Pacquiao proved elusive seven months after announcing his retirement, causing Vargas to land only 104 of 561 punches and 70 of 305 power punches.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao landed 101 of 212 power punches.
He nearly scored knockdowns again in the 11th and 12th, but referee Kenny Bayless ruled they were slips.
Earlier, Southland-trained Oscar Valdez retained his WBO featherweight belt with a seventh-round knockout victory over Hiroshige Osawa.
After claiming the belt with a second-round knockout in July, Valdez spent his first defense hammering Osawa with well-placed and furious punches, especially to the head, and won by seventh-round technical knockout.
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In the fourth, Valdez (22-0) dropped Osawa with a left hook to the jaw and followed that with a flurry that included overhand punch to the head as referee Vic Drakulich pondered a stoppage. Instead Osawa (30-4-4) was subjected to more punishment in the one-sided affair.
Earlier, Jessie Magdaleno (24-0) won the WBO super-bantamweight title from veteran Nonito Donaire by scores of 116-112, 116-112, 118-10.
Magdaleno said he was convinced before the bout that the 33-year-old Donaire couldn’t withstand 12 rounds of pressure.
By the ninth, that pressure remained, as Magdaleno rallied from Donaire pressure to land a series of punches that backed Donaire to the ropes and slowed his interest in reverting to the earlier attack.
Yet, it appeared Donaire (37-4) was stronger in the final three rounds.
He wobbled Magdaleno in the 10th round and hurt the younger foe in both the 11th and 12th rounds as Magdaleno’s former twice-title-contender brother Diego Magdaleno sensed the urgency, barking, “Go get him. You’ve got to kill him.”
Said Donaire: “I thought we were ahead the whole time and had a better second half. This is unbelievable.”
China’s former two-time Olympic champion Zou Shiming (9-1) won his first world title, defeating Thailand’s Prasitak Phaprom (39-2-2) by unanimous decision to claim the WBO flyweight title.
Follow Lance Pugmire on Twitter @latimespugmire
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