WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios (29-2-2, 18 KOs) fought to a controversial 12-round majority draw against legend Manny Pacquiao (62-8-3, 39 KOs) in their clash on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Barrios, 30, looked gun-shy and timid throughout the fight. However, he finally woke up in the championship rounds and made a late surge in rounds 10 through 12 to earn the draw.
The scores
114-114
115-113 for Barrios
114-114
Undercard results
WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora (23-1-1, 15 KOs) may have finished what’s left of the career of former WBO champion Tim Tszyu (25-3, 18 KOs), scoring a seventh-round stoppage. Tszyu was down in round one, and took a beating in rounds 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Occasionally, Tim would land a hard punch, but Fundora never let up with his barrage of shots. The time of the stoppage was at 3:00 of round seven.
Light welterweight Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (28-3-1, 18 KOs) defeated his substitute opponent Omar Salcido (20-3, 14 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 100-88, 99-89, and 99-89.
Featherweight champion Brandon Figueroa (26-2-1, 19 KOs) defeated Joet Gonzalez (27-5, 15 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision. 115-113, 116-112, and 116-112. Gonzalez did the better work and appeared to have done more than enough to get the win. The judges gave it to the more popular fighter, former WBA and WBC super bantamweight champion Figueroa.
Super featherweight Gary Russell Jr. (32-2, 19 KOs) showed that he has a lot left in the tank at 37, knocking out Hugo Castaneda (15-3, 11 KOs) with a body shot in the tenth round. Russell flattened Castaneda with a hard shot to the body in round ten that put him down.
After he got up, he was too hurt to continue, prompting referee Harvey Dock to halt the contest. Earlier in the fight, Russell knocked Casteneda down twice in round two with headshots.
The former WBA featherweight champion Russell Jr, 37, dropped Casteneda three times in the fight. Twice in round two, and a final time in the tenth.
It was the first fight for the former WBA featherweight champion Russell Jr. since his loss to Mark Magsayo in 2022, and his first win since 2020.
Featherweight David Picasso (32-0-1, 17 KOs) grinded out a tougher-than-expected ten-round majority decision over Kyonosuke Kameda (15-5-2, 9 KOs). This was supposed to have been an easy fight for the 24-year-old Picasso, but it turned out to be a near disaster.
Kameda surprisingly outworked him, landing the better and more numerous shots. Luckily for Picasso, the judges bailed him out by giving him a majority decision win by the scores 98-92, 95-95, and 97-93.
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