Earlier today, Carl Froch beat George Groves by 9th round stoppage. The referee stopped the fight even though Groves was winning most of the rounds. In my opinion, it was way early and one of the worst I’ve seen. You can check out the GIF.

Hopefully, there won’t be any referee shenanigans tonight.

Duan and I previewed Manny Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios last night on FGB Radio. We both feel that if Pacquiao is close to himself, he should clearly beat Rios. But if he’s not, Rios has a shot to do some damage.

Check out our live play by play of the fight:

Manny Pacquiao Vs. Brandon Rios

R1

Rios isn’t really coming forward. He’s slow out of the gate to size Pacquiao up and because of it, he’s already taken some decent solid shots. Rios slipped with a minute left. Not a knockdown, but shows he’s off-balanced. Rios’ best shots came on the clinch. Pacquiao’s throwing some nice left-hands, but Rios is blocking some of them.

R2

So far, this is the Pacquiao you would’ve expected if you thought he still had it. He’s out-classing Rios completely. Round two looked like target practice for Manny. The key is seeing how he reacts to the first big shot he takes. He hasn’t yet.

R3

Manny was much more active as far as punching and moving. Rios caught him with a left hand, which could be a good punch for him. Rios came back with some nice shots inside, but he’s taking shots to land shots. Manny’s round, but closer.

R4

Rios is trying to rough him up again. He was hitting in the back on the clinch and doing whatever he can do to catch Manny. Pacquiao is still landing all of the clean shots though. At some point, all the punches Rios is taking to the face will eventually wear him down.

R5

From a scoring standpoint, this was the widest round of the fight. Pacquiao snapped his head back with a straight right and Rios continued to eat combinations all round long. Rios needs to use his left hand more, but Roy Jones made a great point in that he’s using it to protect against the right hook to the body.

R6

Rios was able to sneak some shots in there, but ate a ton. Pacquiao keeps waiting for the referee to break them up, but he’s letting them fight out of the clinch, which is good for Rios, but outside of banging Pacquiao in the back, he’s not doing much with it.

R7

That was a great round for Pacquiao. Rios had absolutely nothing for him. Manny would throw five shots and Rios would lunge with one. He can’t expect to just close his eyes and punch to put Manny out.

R8

Rios landed more punches than Pacquiao that round (or it was close), but some of them may have come from the clinch because while Pacquiao kind of took the round off, but I still had Pac winning.

R9

Rios was able to land a couple more shots in the round, but still, it was yet another boxing clinic from Pacquiao. Rios is throwing the jab more, which should open him up to some right hooks.

R10

Rios’ will looks to be going away. Pacquiao is landing the right hook to the head with great accuracy. Rios’ face is a mess.

R11

I was premature with my last comment about Rios. That was in fact his best round. He landed his jab and a nice left hook that looked to get Pacquiao’s attention. But Pacquiao still landed shots at will. I still have it as a shutout.

R12

Easy work in round 12. At the end of the round, Rios stood in the middle of the ring, which seemed to signify that he was simply tired of trying to catch him anymore and thankful the fight was over. Pacquiao sheepishly walked over to him and hugged him. Rios smiled, like he’s been doing all fight long after eating so many punches. It was a rout.

Winner: Manny Pacquiao by unanimous decision

The scores were 120-108, 119-109. 118-110.