In a dramatic bout featuring a knockdown, momentum swings, and numerous power punches, boxing’s only eight-division world champion, Senator Manny Pacquiao, beat previously-undefeated Keith “One Time” Thurman via a split decision to earn a WBA welterweight world title Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The judges scored the bout 114-113 for Thurman, 115-112 for Pacquiao, and 115-112 for Pacquiao.  The 114-113 scorecard was absolutely ludicrous, as it gave Thurman seven out of the twelve rounds in a fight Pacquiao largely controlled.

Pacquiao was fighting two opponents in the ring -- Thurman and Father Time -- as Thurman was ten years younger than the forty-year-old Pacquiao.

"It was fun,” said Pacquiao. “My opponent is a good fighter and boxer. He was strong. I’m not that kind of boxer who talks a lot. We were just promoting the fight. I think he did his best, and I did my best. I think we made the fans happy tonight because it was a good fight.”

The sell-out crowd of 14,356 got treated to great action from the start, as an exciting first round was capped off by Pacquiao dropping Thurman for the first time in his career with a creative combination involving a straight left to the body followed by a right hook to the head.

"I knew it was too close,” said Thurman. “He got the knockdown so he had momentum in Round One.”

Thurman made it into the second round, but continued to have trouble with Pacquiao’s right hand, as the future Hall of Famer threw it successfully as a jab and a power punch throughout the fight.  Pacquiao's hand speed, power, activity, and footwork perplexed Thurman in the early rounds, as his nose bled and his confidence decreased.

“You get blessings and lessons,” said the gracious Thurman. “Tonight was a blessing and a lesson. Thank you everybody, and thank you Manny Pacquiao.”

However, for all his physical gifts, even Pacquiao can show a little age, as he took a few rounds off to recuperate and had more difficulty avoiding shots.  Both of those factors allowed Thurman to crawl back into the fight.

Thurman adjusted in the middle rounds and began to try to smother Pacquiao and walk him down, having success when he was able to get his combinations off first.

Despite blood pouring from his nose after Round Four, Thurman was able to land powerful combinations on Pacquiao for much of the second half of the fight, but was never able to hurt Pacquiao or score a knockdown of his own.  Pacquiao still has a chin.

“I wish I had a little bit more output to go toe-to-toe,” said Thurman. “I felt like he was getting a little bit tired, but he did have experience in the ring. My conditioning and my output was just behind Manny Pacquiao’s. I would love the rematch.”

In Round Ten, Pacquiao turned the momentum back in his favor for good, landing a strong left hook to the body that clearly hurt Thurman and forced him to spend much of the remainder of the round backpedaling.

The CompuBox scores had Thurman outlanding Pacquiao 210 to 195, while Pacquiao proved to be the busier man, throwing 686 punches to 571 from Thurman.  Pacquiao had a large advantage in jabs landed, connecting on 82 to Thurman’s 18. The 192 power punches landed by Thurman was the most in 43 Pacquiao fights that CompuBox has tracked.

“I think (I will fight) next year,” said Pacquiao. “I will go back to the Philippines and work and then make a decision. I do hope to be at the (Errol) Spence vs. (Shawn) Porter fight on September 28.”

Two much more interesting matchups for Pacquiao than Spence or Porter would be Vasyl Lomachenko at perhaps 140 pounds, or a rematch with the now-retired Floyd Mayweather, who happened to be ringside on Saturday.

In the co-main event, top contender Yordenis Ugas (24-4, 11 KOs) dropped previously unbeaten Omar Figueroa (28-1-1, 19 KOs) on his way to a unanimous decision in their WBC welterweight title eliminator.

Also, former world champion Sergey Lipinets (16-1, 12 KOs) scored a highlight-reel knockout against Jayar Inson (18-3, 12 KOs) in the second round of their welterweight matchup.

Lipinets was originally scheduled to fight John Molina Jr., before Molina pulled out of the fight Friday morning due to a back injury. Inson, who was scheduled to fight on the non-televised undercard, stepped up to the challenge.

The opening pay-per-view bout saw undefeated former champion Luis Nery (30-0, 24 KOs) deliver a ninth-round knockout of former bantamweight champion Juan Carlos Payano (21-3, 9 KOs).

In the main event of the non-PPV broadcast, IBF Super Middleweight World Champion Caleb “Sweethands” Plant (19-0, 11 KOs) retained his title with a dominant third-round knockout over previously unbeaten Mike Lee (21-1, 11 KOs).

“It went exactly how I planned it would go,” said Plant. “Absolutely. I’ve been telling you all week it wasn’t going to go 12 rounds and I stuck to my word and I tried to do that. I hope you guys had a good time.”

Plant got off to a fast-start, dropping Lee with a left hook late in the first round. The unbeaten challenger was able to recover and survive the round, but was hard-pressed to make up for the hand speed advantage of Plant.

“I think I have a high boxing IQ and I do this at a really high level,” said Plant. “So it was just about making adjustments. He’s a big, strong guy and he just came in here to give it his all.”

Lee looked to charge in hard against Plant and use his size and power to land a big shot and change the momentum of the fight. Plant was sharp and avoided the looping right hands that Lee was attacking with.

"The speed was the difference, he's fast and very accurate,” said Lee. "I had some success with my right hands, but wasn't able to be consistent with it.”

In Round Three, Plant landed a vicious right hook early in the round that put Lee down for the second time. After a left hook appeared to connect and send Lee down a second time, referee Robert Byrd ruled it had come from a push and continued the fight once Lee got to his feet.

Plant had his opponent hurt and continued to press forward, eventually landing another left hook that put Lee down, this time forcing the referee to wave off the bout 1:29 into the round.

"I had no issue with the stoppage, that's the referee's job and I respect it,” said Lee.

By Staff of TheDailySportsHerald.com