Mayweather decisions Pacquiao
LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather, Jr. cemented his status as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world with a unanimous decision over Manny Pacquiao as the “Fight of the Century” failed to live up to the hype here on Saturday.
Scattered boos rang out around the crowd of 17,000 in the MGM Grand after Mayweather comfortably outboxed his Filipino rival to frustrate hopes of a full-blooded slugfest.
The 38-year-old Mayweather (48-0, 26 KOs) retained his WBC and WBA welterweight titles and seized Pacquiao’s WBO belt by winning the fight on all three of the judges’ scorecards.
Mayweather received scores of 116-112 from two judges. The third judge scored it 118-110.
But when the results were announced the pro-Pacquiao crowd booed lustily and tried to drown out Mayweather’s post-fight com- ments over the public address system.
Filipino star Pacquiao suffered the sixth loss of his career to go with 57 victories and two draws.
The fight is widely believed to be the most lucrative in boxing history with revenues of $ 400 million.
Pacquiao was the aggressor, pressing action from the first round and was able to land some big lefts on Mayweather’s chin, especially in the final seconds of the early rounds.
But ultimately Pacquiao wasn’t able to keep up his frenzied early pace for all 12 rounds and Mayweather, who was the bigger of the two fighters, managed to slip in counterpunches and hard right hands that stopped the Filipino in his tracks.
Mayweather reiterated after Saturday’s super- fight that he would retire after his next fight in September which will fulfil his six- fight contract to Showtime Sports.
“My last fight is in September. I’ll do that and I will hang it up,” said Mayweather, estimated to have earned $200 million.
Pacquiao meanwhile insisted he thought he had won.
“I thought I won the fight. He didn’t do nothing,” he said.
The entrance of the fighters to the ring was delayed about 45 minutes because of problems with the heavy demand for payper-view telecast and the providers ability to distribute it.
Some of the biggest names in Hollywood, entertainment and sports were in attendance, including director Clint Eastwood, actors Robert De Niro, Jon Voight, Denzel Washington, Bradley Cooper, musician Sting, former NBA star Magic Johnson, actress Claire Danes and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who visited Pacquiao in his dressing room before the fight.
Only a lucky few had tickets to the super-fight but thousands more milled around the outside of the Grand Garden arena and in the hotel’s casino.
Before the fight started, the downstairs lobby of the Grand Garden was crowded with people standing about, taking pictures and hoping to catch a glimpse of a celebrity coming in or out of one of the VIP rooms.
Mayweather made a grand entrance befitting of his superstar status. He was accompanied by his “The Money Team” which includes his father/trainer Floyd Mayweather, Sr.
But Pacquiao arrived first to the ring, smiling relentlessly and even taking a selfie with longtime trainer Freddie Roach during his entrance.
REACTION
A virtual decider of who is the best fighter of this era, Mayweather seized the moment with a convincing victory over Pacquiao that had all the judges scoring in favor of the former, 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112.
“It was an entertaining fight for sure, more so for boxing purists maybe who understood the technicality of what was going on. I can honestly say that was one of Mayweather’s finest performances and he proved to the world how leagues above everyone else he truly is. Pacquiao’s not an easy guy to contain. Mayweather made it look easy. Hats off to him,” Rivals. ph Fight Sports Editor and boxing analyst Carlos Cinco told BusinessWorld in an interview after Sunday’s mega-fight.
“Great fight by Mayweather. Beautiful mix of offense and defense. Showed some grit too in handling Manny’s left hands,” Cinco added.
Cinco went on to say that the hype that came with the megafight, which took all of six years to happen, was well-deserved.
“The fight definitely lived up to the hype. It was a great fight for sure. Relieved this chapter is finally over,” he said.
The analyst went on to say that the victory of Mayweather, which has taken him to one win away from tying the all-time record of 49- 0 of American heavyweight legend Rocky Marciano, solidified his stature as the best of this generation.
“There’s no discussion anymore as to who is the better fighter — it’s clearly Mayweather. No rematch needed.”
Mayweather has now tallied a 48- 0 record while Pacquiao dropped to 57-6-2. — with