Floyd Mayweather Jr improved his pristine record to 48-0 by besting his longtime nemesis Manny Pacquiao -now 57-6-2 with 38KO’s- over the weekend with a performance that set his reputation in stone as the best of this generation.
The feverous build-up to the event had the crowd standing in anticipation before the opening bell at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas; the rich and famous captivated as completely as the working man priced out of the arena.
Pacquiao appeared beside himself with joy on his way to the ring, a stark contrast to Floyd’s sombre intensity. When the two stood across the ring from each other as opposites in nearly every way, you could sense the world holding it’s breath. It was a feeling bordering on titillation knowing that these two men, regardless of their ages, would finally test each other’s skill and will.
This was perceived to be Floyd’s biggest test to date but the show he put on over the next thirty-six minutes poured scorn on the notion that Pacquiao was ever held in the same regard as he. He utterly dominated Pacquiao but not in a brutal sense, he just exerted his will to the fullest possible extent.
After a jittery opening minute Floyd landed the first blow with a counter right hand that he set down as a marker for the rest of the night. With an active jab and that celebrated straight right he established a force-field that Pacquiao found difficult to penetrate, and finished the round without shipping any punches of note.
Pacquiao came out more aggressively in the second and managed to pin Floyd down against the ropes and in the corner several times but with little success. Floyd would bend at the waist in the face of the combinations flying his way before tying Pacquiao up when he got close enough, and then spin himself around to the center of the ring; beginning another trend for the evening.
The third went much the same way though Pacquiao’s persistence paid off as he landed his first telling blows of the fight with a clipping left and right to Floyd’s ever-moving head. He built upon that success in the next round, landing a clean straight left that drove Floyd back to the ropes and into a high guard, where Pacquiao promptly uncorked fifteen unanswered punches in the blink of an eye. Only a few got through but this was the kind of attack people were waiting to see, and Pacquiao followed up well with three separate charges in which he alternated his combinations between the head and body. However, Floyd remained unruffled and landed some clean shots of his own before the bell, but the round was Pacquiao’s.
The fifth was a prime example of why Floyd has been so difficult to beat over the last twenty years. He crushed Pacquiao’s momentum from long range with a stiff jab and some straight rights, slowing the pace considerably and reducing Pacquiao’s Round Four arsenal to a few measly jabs.
From that point on the fight belonged to Floyd. Aside from two occasions in the sixth and eighth where he somewhat replicated his earlier triumph, Pacquiao almost became a passenger. With every little bit of progress he made, be it with a quick forward march, a clean left or the odd counter right hook, Floyd would immediately take the play away from him. When pinned in against the borders of the ring he would bend and twist at the waist, dodging and blocking until he wrapped Pacquiao in the clinch and waited for the referee to separate them. What’s more, the looming possibility of sharp counter punches made Pacquiao more hesitant than usual to swarm in, giving Floyd precious extra seconds within which to operate.
Floyd squashed Pacquiao’s instinctive impetus with controlled technique. His jab was a variating and constant tool; with it he would paw and stab to the head and body from shifting starting points. It had a bamboozling effect on Pacquiao who had to be conscious of that ruthless right hand at all times as well. As the fight wore on Floyd began working his left hook in the the mix and would slide to his left off the ropes on the increasingly rare occasions he was caught there. By the eleventh round there was no hope for the Filipino superstar, whose attempts to push forward in the centre of the ring mostly fell short as Floyd leapt backwards across the canvas, the spring still there.
The final bell brought boos along with it from a crowd wanting dishes of blood and passion, but who were instead served a cold, empirical lesson in the sweet science. Floyd stood in stern celebration atop the ropes in the corner just as he does everyone within his gloved fraternity. “I know I won! I know I won!” he shouted.
Floyd will now reportedly be vacating all of his belts ahead of his final bout in September. He added Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight title to his own WBA Super and WBC belts, but he will also be dropping the 154.lb. straps he holds for the latter two organisations. His is a talent unbound by the standards of normal men and he has superseded the status such prizes have brought all other fighters up to this point. Whatever he does in his last pro outing cannot possible add to the body of work he has already put together.
After his initial claim that he thought he won the fight and revealing he suffered a shoulder injury in camp, Pacquiao cut a disappointed figure after the loss. He didn’t get beat up or even badly hurt. He got Mayweathered. He was unable to cope with the variety Floyd brought in to the ring, and so was made to look like an ordinary fighter in spite of his past glories. He will never be considered Floyd’s equal from here on out and there is no need for a rematch.
The most lucrative fight in sports history has left many spectators disappointed at how it panned out as there were very few exchanges throughout and none that could be labelled as ‘toe-to- toe’ action. But what this bout most pointedly illustrated is that even at the most refined end of the spectrum there is levels to this game, and it looks like nobody will be topping the score of Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather any time soon.
