Photo courtesy of @trboxing

LAS VEGAS – If this is Manny Pacquiao’s farewell to the Sweet Science, the pride of the Philippines went out in style.

Although not quite the boxing dynamo that took the world by storm in the late 2000s, boxing’s only eight-division world titleholder dropped Timothy Bradley twice after a slow start to win a dominant unanimous decision in front of a pro-Pacquiao crowd of 14,665 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

After a career that spanned two decades, Pacquiao maintained that this fight would be his last.

“I am retired,” the 37-year-old Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 knockouts) affirmed afterward. “I have a commitment to my family that I’m going to retire after this.”

Nobody was quite sure what version of Pacquiao we would see. The last time Pacquiao was in the ring, he was thoroughly beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the biggest fight in boxing history that disappointed fans across the globe. As for Bradley, many were curious if the addition of Teddy Atlas to his corner would bring about a different result than the previous two engagements between the two. Even though the series was at one fight apiece heading into Saturday night, the prevailing thought was that Pacquiao was dominant in both performances.

Would things be different this time around?

Not really.

After a sluggish start, flashes of the old Pacquiao settled in and finally cast a massive shadow over whatever improvements Bradley added to his game since their last meeting in 2014.

It wasn’t necessarily the Pacquiao of old, but this version of the Filipino icon was still good enough to outgun a much-improved Bradley.

Photo courtesy of @trboxing

An intriguing, albeit relatively uneventful, first couple of rounds found Bradley patiently waiting for Pacquiao to fire at him. Bradley clearly had a game plan intact and it looked as if he would give the future hall of famer some problems. Maybe Pacquiao was unsure of his shoulder, which he recently had surgery on to repair a torn rotator cuff suffered before the Mayweather fight. But by the third round, Pacquiao shook off the rust and began to dismantle his game but overmatched opponent.

As the fight progressed, Pacquiao began to open up his attack with the trademark darting in and out that had been dizzying for many of his opponents. The devastating left hand that has undone its fair share of fighters began to land more frequently and Bradley simply couldn’t adjust. However, Bradley did get his moments in early as he rocked Pacquiao with a hard uppercut in Round 6 and appeared to regain some of the momentum he lost. However, Pacquiao put the brakes on any charge that Bradley had with a flash knockdown in Round 7. Although it did little damage to Bradley, it certainly let the air out of his balloon as “Desert Storm” walked back to his corner wearing the frustration all over his face.

Perhaps aware that the knockdown greatly diminished his opportunity at winning a decision, Bradley made an attempt to be on the offensive. But in Round 9, Pacquiao sank Bradley to the canvas again. This time the knockdown was more definitive than the first as a thudding left hand caused Bradley to do a rolling backward somersault. And at this point, there was no speech about firemen that Atlas could provide that would be able to help Bradley mount a comeback.

It was smooth sailing from there as Pacquiao cruised to a unanimous decision with all three judges scoring it in favor of Pacquiao 116-110.

Pacquiao officially won the trilogy and redeemed himself after the abysmal performance against Mayweather. More importantly, he proved that he could still be a force in boxing if he chose to do so. But, as of right now, this will be known as Pacquiao’s swan song into the sunset.

“As far as I’m concerned, until I hear differently, Manny Pacquiao has retired from the sport of boxing,” Bob Arum said after the fight. “I’m not even thinking about future fights for him.”

As for Bradley (33-2-1, 13 KOs), the Manny Pacquiao mountain has proven to be the only one he has been unsuccessful at climbing in his otherwise successful boxing career.

“He’s still very quick and explosive,” Bradley said while also stating that this version of Pacquiao is the best that he has faced. “It’s hard to judge him he has quick reflexes and experience. He won the fight tonight.”

Pacquiao’s next fight will be for a seat in the Senate back home in his native Philippines. With the election next month, Pacquiao says that he will focus on helping his fellow countrymen as a politician.

But after a performance like he put on tonight, there’s always a possibility that we’ll see Manny Pacquiao in the squared circle one more time. We’ll just have to wait and see.