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The Fight of the Century, the ‘Ali-Frazier’ of our generation, the pound-for-pound king takes on the Pride of the Philippines and claims his 48th win by unanimous decision.
Floyd Mayweather silenced some of his critics by defeating Manny Pacquiao and adding the WBO title to his Welterweight collection, but added nearly twice as many detractors with his performance.
Antics and arrogance aside, Floyd Mayweather put on a boxing clinic against Manny Pacquiao on Sunday morning and Mayweather rightfully remains the undefeated and undisputed pound-for-pound king. However for the millions out there who ordered and paid for the supposed ‘Fight of the Century’, many pay-per-view buyers felt robbed and cheated with what they saw – and they should be given no sympathy.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but did anyone really think this was going to be a war like an Ali-Frazier or a Ward-Gatti? Did anyone realistically expect the two greatest boxers of this century to lay it all out on the line and trade blow for blow in the middle of the ring?
If you’ve ever listened to just five minutes of a pre-fight boxing or UFC show, you’ve probably come across the phrase “styles make fights”. It’s one of the more over-used cliches thrown around in combat sports but nevertheless, its application to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is just.
What made these fighters so good to begin with was not only their ability to adapt,but their ability to turn their strengths into near invincibility. Pacquiao piled up knockout after knockout on the back of speed and an unrelenting ability to outpunch his opponent.
Mayweather however, ascended to the top of the pound-for-pound rankings on the back of a supreme ability to hit and not get hit; utilising world class speed and ring presence as well as his famed shoulder roll defence. Expecting Mayweather to come out all guns blazing and willingly engage with Pacquiao is ignorant; Mayweather has an enormous ego but he’s not stupid.
The fact is Floyd executed his gameplan to near perfection. He landed punches at a better rate, he avoided any serious damage outside of a couple of flurries and a flush fourth round left and he was able (for the most part) to get off the shots and punches he wanted.
Although I think he should have been deducted a point for repeatedly holding Pacquiao, it would be hard to justify Manny winning 7 out of 12 rounds in that fight. Pacquiao managed to win rounds 2, 4 and 6 convincingly, but giving him anything more than that may be a bit of a stretch.
Manny was the aggressor but he was not always the effective aggressor, as although he managed to control the ring and cut off Floyd’s space, he was not always able to effectively use angles to penetrate Floyd’s defence.
From an outsiders perspective, yes this fight was boring, and failed to match the astronomical hype that it received. If you expected to see a war, Game Of Thrones might have been a better Sunday option for you, but for boxing fans they got exactly what they expected.
This fight was always set up to be boring, most of Mayweather’s fights are, but that’s not why we watch. Apart from the growing legion of people that wish to see for nothing more than for Floyd to lose, we watch because we want to see if Floyd’s opponent is able to do what no fighter has done before – beat the champ.
Pacquiao had his moments against Floyd and even looked getting a knockdown in the fourth round, but realistically it was about as close as he came to derailing the champ as Mayweather was able to outscore Pacquiao effectively in the later rounds.
Great fight – no. Good bout – yes.
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