Boxing - WBA Welterweight Title Fight - Manny Pacquiao v Lucas Matthysse - Axiata Arena, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - July 15, 2018 Manny Pacquiao celebrates after defeating Lucas Matthysse REUTERS/Lai Seng Sin

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Manny Pacquiao put on a dominant display to stun defending champion Lucas Matthysse with a seventh-round knockout and claim the WBA welterweight title in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

The 39-year-old Filipino legend looked focused and busy from the opening bell and had the 15,000 fans at the Axiata Arena on their feet when he sent his Argentine opponent to the canvas three times in total with an array of clubbing blows.

The southpaw dropped his opponent for the final time with a brutal uppercut and the win, his first inside the distance since 2009, improves the eight-division world champion’s record to 60-7-2.

“I’m surprised. Matthysse is a very tough opponent,” Pacquiao said in a post-fight interview following a performance in which he showed glimpses of the spectacular form that catapulted him to the top of global boxing over a decade ago.

“I knocked him down and that’s a bonus for being patient in the fight, and working hard in training.”

Pacquiao set the pace early, probing for openings and moving menacingly around the ring as he dropped Matthysse for a first time in the third round with an uppercut after a flurry of punches had forced the Argentine onto the defensive.

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Unable to gain a foothold against Pacquiao’s swarming attacks, Matthysse (39-5-1) looked to land on the counter but was forced to take a knee towards the end of the fifth round when he was visibly shaken by a right hook to the temple.

Referee Kenny Bayless called off the fight after two minutes and 43 seconds of the seventh round when Matthysse buckled following another stiff uppercut and spat out his mouthguard as he was being counted.

The win, in his first bout since losing the WBO welterweight title to unheralded Australian Jeff Horn in Brisbane a year ago, gives Pacquiao his 11th world title in an incredible career that has made him a national hero in his native Philippines.</s>Philippine boxing legend Manny Pacquiao Sunday defeated Argentine Lucas Matthysse in the seventh round, winning the World Boxing Association's welterweight title.

Pacquiao controlled fight from the beginning at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, forcing Matthysse to the canvas in the third, fifth and again in the seventh round.</s>KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao clinched his 60th victory Sunday with a seventh-round knockout of Argentinian Lucas Matthysse, his first stoppage in nine years, that will help revive his career.

Pacquiao, 39, said his “convincing victory” in the World Boxing Association welterweight title fight, his 12th championship win, showed age isn’t a barrier.

He rebounded from his disappointing loss last year to Australian Jeff Horn and his victory could extend his boxing career that had taken a backseat to his political life as a Filipino senator.

“This is it. I am back in boxing,” Pacquiao said. “I am not done. I’m still there.”

“It’s just a matter of time. You have to rest and get it back and that’s what I did.”

He said training with new coach Buboy Fernandes, after parting ways with longtime trainer Freddie Roach in the lead up to the fight, was effective and that he felt in control from the start.

“At the beginning of round one, I had in my mind that I could control the fight but our strategy is to be patient, to take time, don’t rush, don’t be careless like we did before,” he said.

His aggression knocked Matthysse down on one knee in the third and fifth rounds. A third knock down in the seventh round led Matthysse to spit out his mouthpiece, causing a frenzy among Pacquiao fans in the stadium.

“I am not boasting but…I think he’s hurting from my punches. Every punch that I throw, he’s hurt. I think he’s scared of my punches,” Pacquiao said.
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Matthysse, who won 36 out of 39 matches by knockout, hailed Pacquiao as a “great fighter, a great legend” and said he will take a break after his loss.

“This is part of boxing. You win some, you lose some,” he said.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad also attended the fight, the biggest boxing match in the country since the 1975 heavyweight clash between Muhammad Ali and Australian Joe Bugner.

“I would like to congratulate Senator Manny Pacquiao for giving us pride and bringing the Filipino nation together once more,” said Duterte, who flew to Malaysia earlier for the bout ahead of an official visit.

Duterte said in a statement that Pacquiao has proven himself again as “one of the greatest boxers of all time” and that the win will cement his legacy in the sport.

Scores of screaming Filipino fans in the stadium waved flags and chanted “Manny Manny” throughout the match. Pacquiao’s rise to fame from an impoverished rural boy to one of the world’s wealthiest sportsmen over his 23-year career has made him a national hero.

Pacquaio said he will return to his senator work for now but won’t be hanging up the gloves just yet.

“I am addicted to boxing. I really love to fight and bring honor to my country. That’s my heart’s desire,” he added.

In the other title fights, Filipino Jhack Tepora defeated Edivaldo Oretga of Mexico with a knockout to win the interim WBA featherweight title. Venezuela’s Carlos Canizales defended his WBA world light flyweight title against China’s Lu Bin, stopping him from making history by becoming the first boxer to win a major world title in just two career fights. South African Moruti Mthalane won a close twelve round unanimous decision over Pakistan’s Muhammad Waseem to capture the IBF flyweight title.</s>KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Manny Pacquiao clinched his 60th victory with a seventh-round knockout Sunday of Argentinian Lucas Matthysse, his first stoppage in nine years.

Pacquiao said he worked hard but was surprised by the swift win in the World Boxing Association welterweight title fight.

Pacquiao rebounded from his disappointing loss last year to Australian Jeff Horn and his victory could extend his boxing career that had taken a backseat to his political life as a Filipino senator.

"This is part of boxing. You win some, you lose some," Matthysse said. He hailed Pacquiao as a "great legend" and said he will take a break after his loss.</s>KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Manny Pacquiao clinched his 60th victory with a seventh-round knockout Sunday of Argentinian Lucas Matthysse, his first stoppage in nine years.

Pacquiao said he worked hard but was surprised by the swift win in the World Boxing Association welterweight title fight.

Pacquiao rebounded from his disappointing loss last year to Australian Jeff Horn and his victory could extend his boxing career that had taken a backseat to his political life as a Filipino senator.

“This is part of boxing. You win some, you lose some,” Matthysse said. He hailed Pacquiao as a “great legend” and said he will take a break after his loss.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad also attended the fight, the biggest boxing match in the country since the 1975 heavyweight clash between Muhammad Ali and Australian Joe Bugner.

Duterte said: “I would like to congratulate Senator Manny Pacquiao for giving us pride and bringing the Filipino nation together once more.”</s>KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Manny Pacquiao clinched his 60th victory with a seventh-round knockout Sunday of Argentinian Lucas Matthysse, his first stoppage in nine years.

Pacquiao said he worked hard but was surprised by the swift win in the World Boxing Association welterweight title fight. Pacquiao rebounded from his disappointing loss last year to Australian Jeff Horn and his victory could extend his boxing career that had taken a backseat to his political life as a Filipino senator.

“This is part of boxing. You win some, you lose some,” Matthysse Said. He hailed Pacquiao as a “great legend” and said he will take a break after his loss.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad also attended the fight, the biggest boxing match in The country since 1975 heavyweight clash between Muhammad Ali and Australian Joe Bugner. Duterte said: “I would like to congratulate Senator Manny Pacquiao for giving us pride and bringing the Filipino nation together once more.”

Pacquiao dropped Matthysse three times. According to CompuBox, Pacquiao landed 95 of 344 total punches (28 percent). Lucas Matthysse was 57 of 246 (23 percent). Pacquiao (60-7-2) also connected 44 percent of his power punches (79 of 181) while Matthysse 39-5-0) only landed 36 of 131 (27 percent).

The doom and gloom that others cast on his ongoing boxing career certainly isn’t penetrating him. There were obvious reasons for alarm. He has left his longtime trainer, Freddie Roach, fought for the first time in a year after getting roughed up in a loss, and he’s now 39 years old.

Securing the financing for his bout Saturday night at Malaysia’s 16,000-seat Axiata Arena was a harrowing ordeal that wasn’t resolved until last month, ticket sales lagged and he fell from routine pay-per-view treatment in the United States to placement on the ESPN+ app.

“Everything is fine and I’m excited,” Pacquiao said before the fight.

After injuring his left shoulder doing push-ups off sand bags at Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Los Angeles in 2015, Pacquiao decided to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the most lucrative fight in history, and couldn’t effectively throw power punches, souring fans on the sport as Mayweather fought evasively.

Pacquiao returned to defeat Jessie Vargas for the World Boxing Organization welterweight belt in 2016, but he was manhandled by Jeff Horn in Australia last July with little referee involvement and lost his belt by a disputed decision.

Earlier this year, Pacquiao replaced Roach with a team led by former assistant trainer “Buboy” Fernandez. Pacquiao said he divided the work for Fernandez, conditioning coach Justin Fortune and new assistant trainer Nonito Donaire Sr.

“I give each of them a task, to watch my defense, my footwork, my head movement and the accuracy of the punches, and I had good sparring with four boxers,” Pacquiao said.

“I’m enjoying training. I’m happy. I still have my speed and power. I’m thankful I still have that skill. And we work hard here. The weather [was] really hot [in the Philippines] and we were running through the mountain and sparring. This camp is focusing on the power, and the accuracy of the punches is the main focus.”</s>Manny Pacquiao rolled back the years as he stopped WBA welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse on Sunday - the 39-year-old Filipino icon 's first win inside the distance since 2009. It was a dominant, devastating display as Pacquiao registered the 60th win of a fabled 23-year career that now looks certain to extend beyond his 40th birthday in December. Pacquiao knocked down the big-puncher from Argentina as early as the third round with a stunning left uppercut that thudded around the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.

The 35-year-old Argentine, who came in with a reputation as a big puncher, had no answer to Pacquiao's blistering speed and he dropped again in the fifth.

When a right-left combination thudded home to send Matthysse crashing down for a third time in the seventh round referee Kenny Bayless stepped in to save him from further punishment.

"I'm surprise I knocked him down so early," said Pacquiao who extended his record to 60 wins, seven losses and two draws. "I'm surprised I knocked Matthysse down in the third, fifth and seventh.

"It was a long time ago since I've done that. I came out smoking hot.

"We did a good job in training. We were not pushing hard -- we controlled our pace and ourselves.

"I'm no longer young so thanks to my trainer and all my team members."

A shell-shocked Matthysse, who had come in with a record of 36 knockouts in 39 wins with just four defeats, conceded he had no answer to Pacquiao's speed, movement and power as the "old Manny" returned with a vengeance.

"It's most difficult to be fighting Manny Pacquiao," he said. "He's a great fighter. I lost to a great legend."

On a great morning in Malaysia for fighters for the Philippines, Jhack Tepora earlier stopped Mexico's Edivaldo Ortega to win the interim World Boxing Association featherweight title.

Tepora unleashed a wicked short right hand in the ninth round to knock down Ortega for the first time in what had been to that point an even contest.

He swiftly followed up with a barrage of powerful swinging punches that forced the referee to step in after 2min 38sec of round nine.

"I didn't expect the win but I really trained hard for this fight for three long months," said the big-punching Tepora who extended his unbeaten record to 22 wins with 17 inside the distance.

Tepora cited Pacquiao as his inspiration. "When I saw Manny's story, coming from the streets, I thought one day I could be like that and this is the first step to that dream," he said.

Lu Bin's brave bid for a record world title win in just his second professional fight came crashing to earth when he was knocked out in the dying seconds of his battle with experienced WBA light flyweight champion Carlos Canizales of Venezuela.

Lu was felled near the end of the 11th round for the first time in his short pro career.

Canizales went for the kill in the 12th and final stanza. After a barrage of punches a storming straight right dropped Lu and the referee waved it off.

Moruti Mthalane from KwaZulu Natal in South Africa got off the canvas to take home the vacant International Boxing Federation flyweight title by outpointing Waseem Muhammad, who was bidding to become Pakistan's first ever world champion.</s>GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines: Manny Pacquiao said on Monday (Jul 16) he was good for "two or three" more fights, naming Terence Crawford, Vasyl Lomachenko or Floyd Mayweather as possible opponents a day after winning a new world title.

The 39-year-old Filipino shrugged off renewed calls by friends including President Rodrigo Duterte to hang up his gloves after stopping World Boxing Association welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse, saying he would be "lonely" outside the ring.

Pacquiao flew back from Kuala Lumpur to his southern Philippine home town on Monday, where a crowd of at least a thousand supporters waited for more than four hours to wave at or shake hands with him.

"I feel good for now. Boxing is my passion and I would be lonely if I quit boxing," he told reporters.

"I believe I still have two or three fights left in me."

Pacquiao, already one of the greatest boxers in history with unprecedented world titles in eight weight classes, silenced some of his critics last weekend by pummelling the dangerous Argentine into submission by technical knockout in the seventh round.

It was the first knockout win in nine years for the rags-to-riches southpaw, who is now an elected Philippine senator but who lost his World Boxing Organization welterweight title to unfancied Australian Jeff Horn in Brisbane last year.

Pacquiao, now with a win-loss-draw record of 60-7-2, said he was enjoying his win and was not in negotiations at this time for his next bout.

However he said he would relish another bout with Mayweather, who beat Pacquiao on points in 2015 and later retired undefeated.

"If Mayweather comes back to boxing there is a possibility of a rematch," he said.

"But there are many other challenges, like Crawford, Lomachenko, Amir Khan and many others," he added.

The undefeated American Crawford beat Horn for the WBO welterweight title last month, while Lomachenko holds the WBA super world lightweight title.

Pacquiao soaked up the adulation Monday as a brass band played and a police and military honour guard staged a welcome at the airport in the city of General Santos on Mindanao island.

"I'm a diehard fan of the senator. As you can see, I brought my baby along because I wanted to see a man who had made the Philippines proud," resident Bayra Malagat told AFP as she joined the welcoming crowds while cradling her two-year-old boy.

"We're here to see Manny. Hopefully we get a glimpse of him and get a photo, hopefully," Cieran Fox, one of two southern Philippines-based Irishmen in the welcoming crowd, told AFP.</s>Manny Pacquiao collected his 60th career victory in emphatic fashion Saturday night, stopping Lucas Matthysse in the seventh round to earn the WBA welterweight championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and securing his first stoppage since 2009.

Pacquiao walking to the ring without longtime trainer Freddie Roach by his side was an unfamiliar sight. The two parted ways after Pacquiao’s controversial loss to Jeff Horn last year and there had been a lot of chatter about whether the Filipino living legend could succeed without him. If nothing else, Pacquiao's outing vs. Matthysse could be defined as a vintage performance by boxing’s only eight-division world champion that put the welterweight division on notice.

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The Pacquiao of old came out to play against Matthysse (39-5, 36 KOs) in front of a sold-out crowd at the Axiata Arena and a TV audience watching on ESPN's streaming service, ESPN+. He utilized his superior speed to put the Argentinean on his back foot throughout the fight, a far cry from Pacquiao’s performance against Horn, who used his size to bull the smaller Pacquiao around the ring. Against an opponent who was closer to his size, Pacquiao (60-7-2, 40 KOs) didn't have to worry about a significant size difference.

In fact, he didn’t have to worry about much of anything as Matthysse was beaten to the punch early and often.

Pacquiao overwhelming Matthysse with his in-and-out offense became a familiar sight. He split his opponent's guard regularly with combinations down the middle. When Matthysse closed his guard, Pacquiao used his footwork and awkward angles to wrap punches around his opponent’s gloves.

It was evident after two rounds that Matthysse was overmatched. The only question was whether Pacquiao would be able to score his first knockout since his TKO stoppage of Miguel Cotto in 2009.

Matthysse's demise began in the third round when Pacquiao shot an uppercut between the gloves of the 35-year-old and sent him to the canvas. From there, the fight was simply a battle for survival for Matthysse as Pacquiao decided whether to step on the gas to put him away. It certainly wasn’t as if Matthysse was giving him much resistance.

In the fifth round, amid a typhoon of punches that Matthysse was unable to avoid, Pacquiao stepped back and landed an overhand right. The blow didn’t appear to be significant, but Matthysse decided to take a knee. Although he was dejected between rounds, Matthysse opened the sixth lunging at Pacquiao in hopes of landing one of his big power shots, but without establishing a jab or having anything in his arsenal to set it up Matthysse became a sitting duck.

In the seventh round, Pacquiao appeared to be no longer interested in keeping Matthysse around and landed at will with power punches. With 30 seconds left in the round, another Pacquiao uppercut landed squarely on Matthysse's chin and put him down. “The Machine” had nothing left and spit out his mouthpiece as referee Kenny Bayless called off the bout at the 2:43 mark.

It was a dominant performance by a man who will turn 40 in December. Pacquiao landed 95 of 344 punches (28 percent) but was extremely effective with his power shots, landing 79 of 181 (44 percent). Matthysse had little to no success, with only 57 punches landed in total.

After such a dominant performance, the question on everyone’s mind was whom Pacquiao will face next.

"That’s another story," Pacquiao said. “Right now, I’m happy to go back to the Philippines and celebrate the victory with my fellow countrymen and do my job as a public servant.”

Pacquiao also wouldn’t commit to fighting again this year, but as long as he’s interested in keeping his legendary career going, there will be no shortage of fighters willing to call him out.</s>Manny Pacquiao stopped WBA champion Lucas Matthysse in the seventh round to win back the welterweight world title at the age of 39.

Pacquiao rolled back the years with a devastating display, initially knocking down his Argentinean opponent in the third round at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.

And when Matthysse went down for the third time in the seventh, referee Kenny Bayless stepped in to stop the contest.

It was Filipino icon Pacquiao's first win inside the distance since 2009 and the 60th victory of his incredible 23-year career, which now looks certain to extend beyond his 40th birthday in December.

Matthysse is renowned as a big puncher himself but he was floored by a stunning left uppercut in the third.

The 35-year-old had no answer to the speed of Pacquiao and went down again in the fith, before a right-left combination finished him off two rounds later.

"I'm surprised I knocked him down so early," said Pacquiao who extended his record to 60 wins, seven losses and two draws.

"I'm surprised I knocked Matthysse down in the third, fifth and seventh. It was a long time ago since I've done that, I came out smoking hot.

"We did a good job in training. We were not pushing hard, we controlled our pace and ourselves.

"I'm no longer young, so thanks to my trainer and all my team members."

A shell-shocked Matthysse had come in with a record of 36 knockouts in 39 wins with just four defeats.

"It's most difficult to be fighting Manny Pacquiao," he said. "He's a great fighter. I lost to a great legend."
In boxing, Manny Pacquiao knocks out Lucas Matthysse in the seventh round to win the WBA welterweight championship.