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| Manny Pacquiao walks away after knocking down Keith Thurman. Yahoo Sports |
By Ivan Saldajeno
MANILA—All it took was a Round 1 knockdown for the Manny Pacquiao-Keith Thurman bout to be settled.
Pacquiao banked on the said breakthrough to edge Thurman by split decision in their WBA welterweight super championship bout at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday (Philippine Time).
With Thurman seemingly in control of the first three minutes, Pacquiao delivered a 1-2 combo on Thurman that knocked him down late in the first round.
That set up Pacquiao's dominance in the first five rounds that even saw Thurman getting bloodied inside his nose in Round 5.
However, Thurman became resilient come Round 6 and showed heart the rest of the way.
Glenn Feldman had it 114-113 for Thurman, but Dave Moretti and Tim Cheatham both gave similar 115-112 results in favor of Pacquiao, who essentially unified the WBA super and regular belts in the 147-pound level.
Pacquiao moves up to 61-2-7 win-draw-loss slate, while sending Thurman to his first career loss following a 29-0 start.
Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno
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