what did you expect?

pacquiao wins over larios. not exactly surprising. you know what would be shocking news? if larios knocks pacquiao out on the first round. now THAT would be real news. everybody had already expected a pacquiao victory. pacquiao handlers were predicting a knockout in 6 rounds. eric morales also predicted pacquiao winning. even gamblers had a hard time trying to find someone who would put his bet on larios, so instead they did their betting on if pacquiao would be able to finish larios off before the 6th round or not.

yes, there were some nervous moments in the beginning of the 3rd round, but it was more a matter of overconfidence on pacquiao's part, i think. he just let his guard down, larios saw the opening and took advantage. this stunned manny for a few seconds and pushed him to the ropes, allowing larios to give pacquiao his own flurry of punches. but manny was still able to fight his way out of that fix, and the remaining rounds saw manny's domination till the end, plus two knock outs.

at the end of the match i had a feeling larios went into to this fight expecting to lose. he didn't fight to win, he just fought for the exposure and, of course, the money. but he did finish the match with his two feet on the canvass, so we should at least give him credit for that.

on other pacquiao related matters, he sure has a very unfortunate choice for nickname. other boxers have chosen names like el terible (morales), the golden boy (de la hoya), the flash (elorde), the bomb (jimrex jaca), the czar (amonsot), but pacman? like, that little moving yellow circle with a mouth you find in video games? remotely scary. i suggest a name change.