Manny Pacquiao Wins Comeback Fight Against Jessie Vargas in Front of Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather showed up to watch Manny Pacquiao beat Jessie Vargas in his first fight since returning from retirement.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Manny Pacquiao still has it. On Saturday night, less than seven months after beating Timothy Bradley in what was supposed to be the final fight of his boxing career, Pacquiao climbed back between the ropes and defeated Jessie Vargas handily to earn the WBO welterweight title. And he did it in front of a familiar face, as Floyd Mayweather sat ringside during the fight, which took place in Las Vegas. Pacquiao even waved to Mayweather before the fight got started:

Pacquiao won his fight with Vargas on all three scorecards—118-109, 118-109, 114-113—and seemed to have the upper hand on Vargas throughout the course of the fight. He knocked Vargas down in the second round, and while Vargas put forth a respectful performance, especially in the middle rounds, he was pretty clearly overmatched by Pacquiao during the fight.

Following the fight, Mayweather reportedly said, "Not bad," when he was asked for his immediate reaction to Pacquiao’s performance:

Pacquiao and Mayweather also exchanged pleasantries a short time later:

And while this had led some people to suggest that Mayweather/Pacquiao 2 could be a possibility, Pacquiao refused to take the bait and call Mayweather out during his post-fight interview with Stephen A. Smith (yes, you read that right—the ESPN First Take analyst helped call the Pacquiao/Vargas fight). He said he would be down to fight "anyone":

Not that that stopped people from speculating about a potential Mayweather/Pacquiao rematch:

Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, Mayweather offered up a simple explanation for why he was at the fight in the first place. "I came to take my daughter to the fights," he said.

You buying that? Now that it seems clear that Pacquiao’s boxing career isn’t actually over, stay tuned to see who he will fight next.

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