Manny Pacquiao is once again a boxing world champion. On Saturday night, the legend beat Keith Thurman by split-decision to hand him his first loss. Yet, it wasn’t easy, as it was a super close fight, and many thought it could go either way when the final bell rang.
But, it was Pacquiao who got his hand raised and says he wasn’t worried about the scorecard as he knew he had won the fight.
“No (I wasn’t worried),” he said to FOX Sports. “Because I (also) got him in the tenth round.”
In that tenth round, he nailed Thurman with a hard body shot that hurt him badly. It there when Pacquiao started to find his groove again and picked apart, Thurman. Although he won the fight, the legend of the sport admits his opponent was one of the tougher opponents he has faced and admits the former champ hits extremely hard.
“He’s heavy-handed, man,” Pacquiao said in a post-fight press conference (as transcribed by BloodyElbow). “Not like other opponents that I faced before. This guy, he can fight. He’s a kind of opponent that you can’t underestimate.
“I did my hard work (in) my training for this fight. I think I’m just blessed because I got him in the first round. And I think that was the key, the turning point for my win tonight.”
Even though he had won the fight, Manny Pacquiao knows Keith Thurman will be a champion again and had some kinds words following their bout.
“Don’t be discouraged, this is part of boxing. And I know your journey is not over,” he concluded.
