Manny Pacquiao wants another shot at Mario Barrios after his comeback fight for the WBC welterweight championship ended in a controversial majority draw after 12 rounds on Saturday night.
Two judges scored the bout as a 114-114 draw, while the third gave the fight to Barrios, 115-113. Barrios retained his title and improved his record to 29-2-2 with 18 knockouts. The defeat dropped Pacquiao’s career record to 62-8-3 with 39 KOs. He was back in the ring four years after retiring.
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“I thought I won the fight,” Pacquiao said afterwards. Had he been awarded the victory, Pacquiao would have made boxing history as the second-oldest fighter to win a major world championship.
Following the bout, Pacquiao said he would pursue a rematch with Barrios and talked about how he would train differently with another opportunity.
“I need to continue my training for longer going into a championship fight,” Pacquiao said, via ESPN.com. “Because of the election I started late, but it’s OK. Of course I’d like a rematch. I want to leave a legacy and make the Filipino people proud.”
Pacquiao ran to regain the Senate seat in the Philippines that he held from 2016-22 earlier this year, but was defeated.
The 12-time world champion was energetic in the early rounds, landing several combinations. However, he appeared to tire and slowed down in the middle rounds, giving Barrios an opportunity to regain points on the scorecard.
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Many observers among boxing fans and media, including fellow fighters, believed Pacquiao should have been the winner and earned an improbable comeback victory at the age of 46.
“That’s just absolutely awful. Beyond awful. Complete f***eration,” longtime boxing writer Dan Rafael posted on social media.
“The fight was indeed close, but Manny Pacquiao losing like that, when the “champ” seemed to s*** the bed and every person watching was rooting for a seemingly plausible Manny UD, was another meh look for boxing,” said boxing promoter Lou DiBella.
“Really feels like Manny Pacquiao just got robbed of a legendary win befitting of a legendary career,” Uncrowned’s Alan Dawson wrote during the fight.
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Pacquiao connected on 101 of his 577 punches, according to CompuBox punch stats (via ESPN.com), also compiling an 81-75 advantage in power punches. Barrios landed 120 of his 658 punches.
Barrios said he’s willing to fight Pacquiao again, acknowledging the attention that their match brought to the sport.
“I’ll do the rematch,” Barrios said. “Absolutely. This was huge for boxing. I’d love to do it again.”
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