Less than a year after retiring, Manny Pacquiao is on top of the world again.
Pacquiao, 37, outclassed and outworked Jessie Vargas for 12 full rounds to snatch the World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title on Saturday night (Sunday Manila time) via unanimous decision at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
The three judges scored it 118-109, 118-109, 114-113, all for the Filipino boxing legend.
It was the first bout for Pacquiao coming out of seven-month retirement after beating Tim Bradley Jr by similar unanimous decision in what he said then would be his final career fight.
He ran for a Senate seat afterwards and easily won.
Against Vargas, making the first defense of the title he won last March opposite Sadam Ali, Pacquiao hardly looked like one who was away from boxing for half a year.
The pride of General Santos City scored the lone knockdown of the match when he sent Vargas down on the canvas with his lethal left straight.
The second-round knockdown set the tone of the lopsided fight watched by a crowd of 16,132.
The dethroned champion managed to finish the fight up on his feet, but was obviously not in the same class as his challenger, an eight-time world division champion and the first senator to win a world boxing title.