In a spectacular performance before a delighted crowd of 41,734 at Cowboys Stadium, Pacquiao cemented his claim to being the best boxer in the world by dominating the bigger but slower Margarito almost from the opening bell.
Pacquiao won round after round, opening a cut on Margarito’s cheek and closing his right eye.
The punches came quickly, and they came often. Margarito was plenty game as he tried to stalk Pacquiao around the ring, but every time he got close Pacquiao would land a four- or five-punch combination that snapped his head back and stopped him in his tracks.
The beating was so thorough that the congressman from the Philippines turned to referee Laurence Cole several times in the 11th round, imploring him to stop the fight. It went on, though, even though Margarito had no chance to win.
“I can’t believe that I beat someone this big and this strong,” Pacquiao said. “It’s hard. I really do my best to win the fight.”
Pacquiao moved up in weight yet again to take on Margarito, a natural welterweight with a reputation for ruggedness in the ring. And rugged he was, though he took a beating all night long at the hands of a faster and seemingly more powerful opponent.
“There was no way I was gong to quit. I’m a Mexican, we fight until the end,” Margarito said.
Pacquiao won every round on one scorecard, 120-108, and was ahead 119-109 and 118-110 on the other two. The Associated Press had it a 120-108 shutout.
“We didn’t lose a round,” said Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach. “I wish they would have stopped the fight.” That almost happened, but Cole allowed it to go on even as Margarito kept taking such a beating that he went directly to a hospital afterward for treatment of his cuts. There wasn’t any way Margarito was going to win the fight, but he could still see out of one eye and wanted to continue.
“I told the referee, `Look at his eyes, look at his cuts,“’ Pacquiao said. “I did not want to damage him permanently. That’s not what boxing is about.”
Ringside punch stats reflected Pacquiao’s dominance, showing him landing 474 punches to 229 for Margarito. But it wasn’t just the sheer volume of punches, but the power in which they came at almost every angle.
Roach predicted before the fight that Pacquiao would carve Margarito apart because he was simply much too quick for his opponent. He did just that, starting from the first round when he landed an early flurry up the middle that seemed to set the tone for the fight.
It wasn’t entirely easy, though. Pacquiao said Margarito hurt him in the middle rounds with shots to the head and the body, though he was unable to land more than one of two punches at a time. When he did manage to land, more often than not Pacquiao was there to fire right back with volleys of his own that found their mark almost every time.
“Manny is the best fighter in the world,” said Margarito’s trainer, Robert Garcia. “He is just too fast — very, very quick.”
While there was no controversy in the ring, there was a dispute in the dressing room before the fight when a member of Pacquiao’s camp saw a weight-loss supplement in Margarito’s gear and demanded his blood be tested immediately for possible banned substances. Texas boxing officials ruled that would not be necessary, and the fight went on.
Roach also made sure he was in the dressing room to watch the hands of Margarito, who is still banned in California for a hand wrapping scandal, get wrapped. But it was Margarito’s corner who demanded Roach also rewrap his fighter’s hands in a display of gamemanship.
Once the fight started it didn’t matter. Pacquiao landed some big left hands early, cutting Margarito beneath the right eye and causing it to swell. By the middle of the fight he couldn’t see out of that eye and his left eye began closing, too.
The fight was for the WBC 154-pound title even though the contract weight was 150 pounds. Margarito weighed 150 at Friday’s weigh-in, but was 165 on the unofficial HBO scale before the fight while Pacquiao, who had been 144.6, was 148 pounds.
Pacquiao also gave away 4½ inches in height and was at a six-inch reach disadvantage, but that didn’t matter either.
Pacquiao earned a guaranteed $15 million, though he is likely to make millions more on his cut of the television revenues. He planned to give a concert at Lake Tahoe on Tuesday and then return to his political duties in the Philippines.
“I have another job after this,” Pacquiao said. “I’m going back to the Philippines to do my other job and be a public servant.”
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As Pacquiao won his record eighth world title, fans across the Philippine archipelago — from air-conditioned shopping malls and hotels to packed parks and covered public halls across the country — erupted in celebration.
“Manny made all of us proud by punishing Margarito with body punches and jabs to his face,” Pedro de Jesus, a 62-year-old taxi driver told Reuters as he left a park in Manila’s slums after the bout, which took place on Sunday afternoon in the Philippines.
“He was not only a great boxer but he was also a very humane fighter. He was asking the referee to stop the fight because he doesn’t want to hurt Margarito further.”
In Marikina City in the capital, some fans were perched on trees, lamp posts and concrete walls to get a better view of huge TV screens set up in a crowded public park.
“Go, Manny, go!” could be heard every time Pacquiao’s left hand connected with Margarito’s face, the crowd egging him to finish off the Mexican in the 11th round when his opponent, bloodied and face swollen, was no longer fighting back.
President Benigno Aquino’s aide told reporters he watched the bout at a hotel room after attending a leaders’ meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Yokohama, Japan.
Soldiers also took a break to watch Pacquiao’s fight inside military bases across the archipelago, imposing an unofficial truce with Maoist guerrillas and Islamic militants.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Arnulfo Burgos said troops resumed patrols and security-related operations after the bout.
Police authorities have said the crime rate drops every time Pacquiao climbs the ring.
The same was true on Sunday, with millions of Filipinos glued to televisions and radios at homes, restaurants and cinemas to witness the 31-year-old southpaw make boxing history.
