By Bob Smith: Tonight, Manny Pacquiao, all the hype and talk aside, could only manage to land 81 punches on Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his 12 round unanimous decision loss at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Despite Pacquiao’s talk of continuous aggression, 100-punch rounds, overwhelming Floyd with aggression and precision punches, and maybe even scoring an early knockout?
Overall, the punch totals landed were 81 to 148, with Mayweather having the advantage by a huge 67 punches. But even this does not tell the story of the dominance of Mayweather – Pacquiao landed most of his punches in rounds 4,6, and 10 – basically, when he caught Mayweather with a good left hand, he was able to get Mayweather on the ropes and score – but unfortunately only to the body, for Mayweather covered up effectively. Because of this, his total punches landed outside of those rounds was around 55, or about 6 punches per round. It is simply not possible to defeat any boxer, much less the best in the world, when you only average 6 punches landed per round on your off rounds.
Going in to the fight, I really thought anything could happen and really no outcome would surprise me – either Pacquiao or Mayweather by decision, or a knockout from either of them. I did think Mayweather would win, but in the back of my mind was not sure about how he would handle Pacquiao’s excellent straight left hand, along with his speed and aggression.
As it turns out, due to controlling distance and due to an effective jab, Pacquiao rarely had a chance to throw punches in bunches. And even when he did, in the 3-4 times where he did seem to overwhelm Mayweather, he punched himself out without scoring a major blow. The rest of the time, most of every round and nearly all of every round outside of 4,6, and 10, Mayweather dominated.
All in all, it was one of his greatest performances ever. I thought recently his victory against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto were very impressive, but in recent years, perhaps post-2010, arguably this was his most impressive victory.
In retrospect, we all lived in a Mayweather bubble – for the past several years he has fought opponents who were bigger and stronger than him – boxers who typically outweighed him by 8-20 pounds, so when he did fight someone his own size or smaller, his power and technique were able to shine so much more effectively.
Where then does this leave Mayweather? Certainly the overwhelming dominance of Mayweather should put to rest who is the better fighter, and the greatest fighter of his generation. I personally was cheering for Mayweather and am irritated by those who wish him ill out of jealousy, envy, blood-lust, or racism. I think that it is significant that he is his own boss and controls his own company – this is why he has failed to get endorsements and sometimes gets bad press – he does not play the corporate sponsorship game, does not curry favor with executive or media power to hypnotize the masses as do athletes in other sports (who are no better or no worse as people than him), and is always willing to maintain his independence and speak his mind. He is his own man, and only after he broke free from Bob Arum were other boxers able to transition to a managerial role. Much of the objections to hm and conversely the enthusiasm for Pacquiao is envy of those who do not control their destiny and racism against a black entrepreneur who is not a puppet of the corporate elite or media.
Certainly the overwhelming dominance of this victory makes him a better candidate for being considered an all time great than before the fight. Is he an all time great, overall, and in terms of defense? His defense is unquestionably one of the best, if not the best ever in boxing. Certainly he should be considered in the top dozen ever. But what do you think, is he the best ever? Would he have beaten a prime Sugar Ray Leonard or Sugar Ray Robinson? As you answer this, consider the fact that he has never in 48 fights gone down or even been significantly rocked by a punch. As for me, I place him in the top five fighters ever, along with Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, and Sugar Ray Leonard.
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