The fight got off to a late start as Pacquiao had to run on the treadmill to loosen up his calf muscles before getting gloved up. He had complained of cramping in his legs during his last two fights against Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez.



Neither man had an airtight defense. Pacquiao was able to sneak in a quick left-right combination down the middle in the first two rounds. But it didn't seem to bother Bradley that much. Bradley seemed more interested in trying to earn Pacquiao's respect through the first few rounds than landing anything telling. Bradley was trying to work the body and maul Pacquiao, who did everything he could to keep Bradley from head-butting him.



Pacquiao opened up a blistering barrage of combinations that stunned and wobbled Bradley late in the fourth round. But he couldn't put Bradley on the canvas. Bradley closed the round by landing a sharp left to Pacquiao's chin, an indication that he was still in the fight.



By the sixth round Pacquiao had shifted into stalker mode. He was walking down Bradley, who had slowed down. It looked like Bradley's plan to counterpunch, something he had taken from tapes of Marquez's fights against Pacquiao, had been shelved.



Pacquiao's speed and power were too much for Bradley. Before the fight those were the two things that Bradley said he didn't fear about Pacquiao. But as the fight wore on, those were the two things that seemed to be his undoing.



Much was made before the fight of Pacquiao's rededication to religion. He had always been a practicing Catholic, but he had taken to regular Bible study after his infidelity, gambling and late-night carousing threatened to end his marriage. He had blamed those vices for his lackluster performance against Marquez.



Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, had applauded the new adherence to strict moral principles. He said it made Pacquaio more focused and had him coming into training fresher each day.



Bradley had come into the fight supremely confident that he could take advantage of any and all of Pacquiao's weaknesses. If Pacquiao's skill level had slipped at all, Bradley said he was ready to exploit it to his advantage.



PUNCH LINES

On the undercard, Guillermo Rigondeaux (10-0, 8 KOs) stopped Teon Kennedy (17-1-2, 7 KOs) on a TKO at 1:11 of the fifth round to take the WBA super bantamweight title. Rigondeaux dropped Kennedy twice in the second round and again in the third before stopping him in the fifth. ... Randall Bailey (42-7, 36 KOs) won the vacant IBF welterweight title with a devastating TKO of Mike Jones at 2:52 of the 11th round. Bailey, 37, dropped Jones (26-1, 19 KOs) in the 10th and then finished him off in the 11th with a crushing right uppercut that sent Jones flat on his back. Jones rose unsteadily on his feet and stumbled back to the canvas as referee Tony Weeks stopped it.... There was a no decision in the featherweight match between Jorge Arce and Jesus Rojas after Rojas landed a low blow and a head butt and then hit Arce behind the ear in the second round.