Pacquiao vs. Bradley 3 Results: Pac-Man Defeats Desert Storm Via Decision

In what was perhaps the final fight of his illustrious boxing career, Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao defeated Timothy "Desert Storm" Bradley on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas by unanimous decision. All three judges scored it 116-110 in favor of the winner, per ESPN's Dan Rafael.

The fight was mostly what one would expect, with little sustained action on either side. Pacquiao did score knockdowns in the seventh and the ninth rounds, and he was the more aggressive of the two, but the pace stalled intermittently throughout.

In the end, Pacquiao used his footwork and speed to overmatch Bradley, forcing him to fight on his heels en route to a decisive victory.

With the win, the 37-year-old Pacquiao improved his career record to 58-6-2 and gained some measure of vindication after losing his previous fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. nearly one year earlier.

Prior to the bout, the Filipino superstar stressed that he intended to retire afterward due to his political aspirations, according to Reuters (h/t GMANetwork.com): "I'm not tired with boxing. ... But I made the decision to retire after this fight and focus on serving the people. If I win in the Senate it will be a big, big responsibility and hard work."

Pac-Man's retirement was the biggest storyline leading up to the contest, but the 32-year-old Bradley insisted it wasn't on his mind, per Keith Idec of BoxingScene.com:

"

To be honest with you, I don't know. And honestly, I don't really care. If it is, so be it. If it isn't, then hey, that's more power to him. He can do what he wants to do. But I'm not really thinking about [his] last fight [being] this fight. It's a fight April 9. That's all I know. It's a fight April 9 that I wanna win, that my team wanna win, and I'm sure [trainer] Teddy [Atlas] wants to win this fight. And we just have to go out there and do our job.

"

Despite Bradley's focus, he fell to 33-2-1, with both of those losses coming at the hands of Pacquiao.

Bradley controversially defeated Pac-Man by split decision in 2012 in a fight most pundits believed Pacquiao won handily.

Desert Storm was widely criticized after that victory, and he admitted during the build toward Saturday's fight that the reaction nearly caused him to end his career and had him questioning his will to live, according to Andrew L. John of the Desert Sun: 

"

The people, the media, everyone humiliated me. I was ridiculed, demonized, you name it. It was like I took something from the world. Everybody hated me for it. ... When you go through that and you see that, you're like, 'Damn.' You don't feel like you want to live anymore. People can be so mean and so brash and not understanding. You don't want to fight anymore; you don't want to live anymore. Why do I do this? It was just a hard point for me, and at that time I didn't want to fight anymore. There was no point in fighting anymore.

"

Bradley managed to bounce back and stick with his boxing career, but he lost his rematch against Pacquiao in April 2014 by unanimous decision.

He followed that up with two wins and a draw in his next three fights, which set the stage for a third, decisive meeting with Pac-Man.

Bradley had an opportunity to prove he could beat Pacquiao without controversy Saturday; however, the night belonged to his legendary opponent, as Pac-Man went out on a high note.

Despite the defeat, Bradley still figures to be a top contender in the welterweight division since he has yet to lose a fight in his career to anyone other than Pacquiao.

As for Pacquiao, Saturday's win will provide a much better lasting memory for boxing fans than his listless effort against Mayweather would have, had that been his final fight.

The authenticity of retirement is always called into question in the sport of boxing, but there is little left for Pacquiao to prove after settling his series with Bradley and Mayweather's own retirement..

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