Pacquiao shows no rust in easy win against Vargas in Las Vegas

By Jesse Granger

Published Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016 | 9:28 p.m.

Updated Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016 | 11:58 p.m.

Last summer Manny Pacquiao was elected a senator in his home country of the Philippines.

Saturday night he dusted off the boxing gloves as if he'd never missed a day in the gym, outclassing Jessie Vargas to reclaim his World Boxing Organization welterweight belt.

In the second round Pacquiao landed a stiff left, dropping Vargas to the canvas, and the Thomas & Mack Center crowd erupted in cheers.

“His speed surprised me at the beginning, and that knockdown woke me up,” Vargas said. “He has tremendous speed, and sometimes you get caught with those quick shots you don’t see and it knocks you down.”

The 37-year-old legend was more than 7,000 miles from his home country but appeared at home inside the boxing ring.

Pacquiao (59-6-2, 28 KOs) defeated Vargas (27-2, 10 KOs) via unanimous decision (114-113, 118-109, 118-109) to win the belt that he relinquished upon retirement last year.

“I feel happy,” Pacquiao said. “I tried every round to knock him down, but I don’t want to be careless. I was very careful to go inside because I know he could counter me.”

The now-11-time champion represents his country in office — he didn’t miss a senate session over the past year — and in the ring with his signature hand speed that baffles opponents.

“He was really busy with the senate and all of that, but he was training really hard every day,” Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, said. “We are going to have to get used to this because he’s going to be a senator for the next six years and he’s not done fighting yet.”

His fans rewarded him, showering him with a deafening “Manny” chant as he stalked Vargas around the ring.

Vargas ended the fight with a bleeding right eye that was nearly swollen shut after 12 rounds of snapping right hooks from “Pacman.”

Pacquiao nearly had two other knockdowns late in the fight, but referee Kenny Bayless waved them off as slips.

“Yea I was a little disappointed,” Roach said about Pacquiao not finishing the fight. “He had a nice knockdown early on, and I thought that might go farther. I can’t cash my slip in I guess.”

Vargas did manage to hang with Pacquiao for the first half of the fight — sans the knockdown in the second round — but Pacquiao cruised in the second half of the fight as his superior speed allowed him to beat Vargas to the punch.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. watched ringside, raising obvious questions about a rematch of the record-breaking megafight from May 2, 2015.

“I’m going to go back to the Philippines and back to work at the senate and I will talk to Bob (Arum) about my next fight,” Pacquiao said. “I don’t know who it will be. Whoever the people want me to fight. I’m not picking an opponent. Whoever my promoter picks for me I will fight.”

Pacquiao was unavailable for a post-fight news conference due to receiving 16 stitches for a cut he suffered in the final round.

Top Rank founder and CEO Bob Arum said that as far as he knows, Mayweather will remain retired. He mentioned Terence Crawford, Vasyl Lomachenko and Danny Garcia as possible future opponents for Pacquiao.