Review:2001-06-23, Manny Pacquiao vs Lehlohonolo Ledwaba was the first fight of Pacquiao in the USA and was certainly one of the best fight of 2001. Manny Pacquiao was 22 years old and had a record of 32 wins and 2 losses (with Torrecampo in 1996 and Singsurat in 1999) and that day against Ledwaba, he fought for the IBF super bantamweight title. Watch the video!
Date: 2001-06-23
Where: MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Division: super bantamweight (122 lbs, 55.3 kg)
Title: IBF super bantamweight title
Result: Click here to show the fight’s result
Manny Pacquiao def. Lehlohonolo Ledwaba (TKO at 0:59, round 6)
Video:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1t8tut
Another one I had never seen, Lebwada had his shorts pinkish and reddish from blood, we don’t see much white shorts nowadays probably for that reason.
As I saw for Lebwada on Boxrec, this fight totally derailed his career, while it propelled Pacquiao from anonymous to what we know today. His power at that weight was scary. I give it 4 stars, very entertaining, but I don’t think such a massacre, not-that-competitive bout deserves 5, even though it was fun to watch.
BTW, I saw on Boxrec that Pacquiao made only 40,000$ for that fight.
Agreed, Matt. 5 stars seems a bit exaggerated considering the one sided beat down that this fight was. While it would prove to be significant over time, because of the career Manny had, at the time it was just an unknown fighter beating another obscure fighter to a pulp. I guess that’s part of the issue here…I don’t know if we’re rating these fights on what they mean now, or what they meant when they happened.