The bloggers called it. Last weekend, The Boxing Bulletin gathered boxing’s top bloggers for a roundtable discussion about the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito, and none of them were particularly optimistic about Margarito’s chances.

And as tonight’s results showed, those guys knew their stuff. Pacquiao rearranged Margarito’s face on his way to a unanimous decision victory, and was so dominant that at the end of the match, he was looking at the referee to stop the fight and spare his opponent more punishment.

Unlike most Filipino fans, those boxing bloggers didn’t have an extraordinary emotional attachment to Pacquiao. Unlike HBO and Top Rank, they didn’t need to sell the fight. Unlike “experts” like Ronnie Nathanielsz, they weren’t interested in playing politics, so they didn’t keep yammering about the supposed issues in the Pacquiao camp, like Pacquiao’s weight.

These were guys who knew their boxing, and they saw the fight for what it really was: a huge mismatch. Scott Christ put it so well: “This is a speed merchant with at the least enough power to keep anyone honest against a lumbering guy who hasn't fought a tough opponent in two years. Does that sound like it has the makings of a great fight?”

That it was a mismatch doesn’t take away from Pacquiao’s huge achievement tonight, beating down an opponent who was about five inches taller and at least fifteen pounds heavier. Filipino fans don’t think of Pacquiao so much as a boxer, but as a superhero, so we’re not really looking for a good boxing fight as much as we’re looking for the next display of superhuman feats. And on paper, cutting down a taller, heavier Mexican badass is pretty super.

But the fact remains that as long as Pacquiao did his homework, this fight really wouldn’t post much of a challenge for the pound-for-pound king. At this point, there aren’t too many challenges left in the boxing world for Pacquiao. There’s Floyd Mayweather, of course, but with all the drama involved in negotiating that fight, and with Pretty Boy Floyd facing a legal battle, who knows if that’s ever going to happen?

I’m not sure if retirement isn’t the best option right now for Pacman. Of course, if he decides to continue fighting, we’d all still turn out in huge numbers, and pay a ridiculous amount of money to catch his fight in the theaters, but then we’d all just be going through the motions, including Manny. He’s given us so much already, and I’m not sure he could do us any better. And we couldn’t really ask for anything more.