LAS VEGAS — Manny Pacquiao couldn’t believe what he heard when Jimmy Lennon Jr. announced the scores Saturday night.

The Filipino legend thinks he deserved to win eight of the 12 rounds he and Mario Barrios boxed at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Pacquiao, 46, instead settled for a majority draw in his comeback bout because none of the three judges scored their competitive fight for him.

Max De Luca credited Barrios for a 115-113 win. Tim Cheatham and Steve Weisfeld had it 114-114 apiece.

The controversial result of Pacquiao’s first fight in almost four years initiated talk of an immediate rematch. The age-defying eight-division champion felt he accomplished more than enough, though, in their pay-per-view main event to have shifted his focus toward making his first defense of the WBC welterweight title against another opponent.

“I thought that after the 12 rounds, I won the fight like — my analysis is I won 8-4,” Pacquiao said during his post-fight press conference. “That’s my analysis for the fight. But the thing is I’m surprised with the announcement — it’s [a] draw. So, I did my best in the ring. The fans [were] so happy with my performance. But it’s all right. Pac-Man is back, so I’m still here.”

Pacquiao (62-8-3, 39 KOs) was on course to beat Barrios (29-2-2, 18 KOs) through nine rounds.

He was ahead by the same score, 87-84, on the cards of Cheatham and Weisfeld entering the 10th. De Luca had Pacquiao in front by a point, 86-85.

Barrios, 16 years younger and six inches taller than Pacquiao, swept the last three rounds on each judge’s card to retain his title.

The San Antonio, Texas, native fought to a second straight draw. He survived a sixth-round knockdown in his previous bout, which resulted in a split draw with Abel Ramos (28-6-3, 22 KOs) on Nov. 15 in Arlington, Texas.

The unofficial punch stats Saturday indicated that the Pacquiao-Barrios bout was as close as Cheatham, De Luca and Weisfeld scored it.

CompuBox credited Barrios for landing 120 of 658 punches overall, 19 more than Pacquiao (101 of 577). Pacquiao connected with more power punches (81 of 259 to 75 of 235), but Barrios landed more jabs (45 of 423 to 20 of 318).

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s head trainer, nonetheless agreed with his fighter’s perspective. It was Pacquiao’s first fight since he lost a unanimous decision to Cuba’s Yordenis Ugas in August 2021 at nearby T-Mobile Arena.

“We had a great fight,” Roach said. “Manny fought very well. And he even had a knockdown in there somewhere — they didn’t count it. But I thought he won the fight 8-4. But that’s the way things go and we would like a rematch right away.”

The “knockdown” to which Roach referred occurred approximately 50 seconds into the second round. Referee Thomas Taylor rightfully ruled it a slip because Barrios appeared to trip without getting hit by a punch.