Floyd Mayweather proved once again that he’s the best boxer in the world by defeating Manny Pacquiao in the mega-fight years in the making. It wasn’t easy, and it certainly wasn’t a blowout, but Floyd’s evasiveness was the difference in a bout where Pacquiao only looked like himself in fits and starts. Every time he would press forward and put Floyd on the ropes for a round, Mayweather stepped right back up in the next round and tamed Manny’s ferocity.
It was almost like he was toying with Manny at times.
Mayweather used his best weapons – incredible defense and a lightning fast lead straight right – to pick up rounds early and especially late. Pacquiao needed to throw with volume, and he just wasn’t able to do it consistently. No one was hurt in the fight. It wasn’t a brawl, that’s for sure. But that’s not what you get with Floyd. You get a technician that might not be mega-entertaining, but he’s the definition of “sweet science” to me.
I’m just happy the judges saw it the same way as (mostly) everyone else did for once. The scores were 118-110 (which is a bit of a stretch) and two 116-112’s, which is exactly how I had it. There was at least one person that thought Pacquiao won – Manny himself.
In the post-fight interview, Pacquiao was convinced that he had scored with more damaging shots and that Floyd ran. Did he actually run? No. Other than a 12th round where he wasn’t going to take any chances, Mayweather just did a pretty good job of not letting Manny corner him. Floyd controlled the range the rest of the time, and that’s not something Pacquiao was able to adjust to.
Will there be a rematch? I don’t think so. I think this was decisive enough that there won’t be as much interest in it than there was for this one. But it’s clear that interest in this one was through the roof, with the main event actually being delayed because people were trying to order the bout. There’s so much money in a rematch that it might happen. But I’d lean towards no.
Floyd says he wants to fight again in September, and that’s the last fight on his Showtime contract. He says that he wants to retire after that. If not Manny, bouts with Keith Thurman or Amir Khan would still make him a lot of money. Not more than a rematch with Pacquiao though.
- The Burger King guy coming to the ring with Floyd’s entourage was hilarious. So was Jimmy Kimmel dressed as Justin Bieber.
- Jamie Foxx’s rendition of the American national anthem was beyond bad. My 85-year-old father watched the fight with me, and he usually doesn’t say too much. After Foxx stopped shrieking, my dad turned to me and said “That was f–king terrible.” I have to agree.
- Yes, there were a lot of celebrities there. Did we need to see every one of them though? Woo, four Batmans. Yee haw.
- The dual Showtime/HBO broadcast definitely had some awkward moments. Michael Buffer and Jimmy Lennon Jr. alternating back and forth for announcements was odd. The two scorekeepers had some strange stuff going on. As for the announce crew though, I thought they did a great job. Roy Jones in particular.
- The undercard was pretty lame for an event of this stature, but both Leo Santa Cruz and Vasyl Lomachenko put on some good fights. Lomachenko in particular was really impressive. The guy that impressed me the most though was LSC’s opponent Jose Cayetano. He has an absolutely stellar chin – the guy took some monster shots from Santa Cruz and didn’t even blink. He totally got his butt handed to him in the fight, but mad props for staying on his feet for the whole 10 rounds.