By Michael Byrne: The judges gave Floyd Mayweather Jr. the fight last night in his fight against Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. You probably gave it to Pacquiao, like all of the other overnight armchair heavily opinionated fans.
You’re welcome to say Pacquiao won the fight, because that is your opinion and your forefathers fought for your right to free speech. Further, boxing is scored on an ultimately subjective scale, so choosing the victor is all about opinion anyway.
All three judges, the two TV judges, and ESPN’s Dan Rafael all gave the fight comfortably to Mayweather. So if you’re going to give it to Manny, then you had better back it up with reasons which aren’t odd. I am tired of hearing ‘Floyd lost because he just ran round the ring’. I am tired of hearing ‘Mayweather just hugged him all night’.
Floyd didn’t just run around the ring. He actually punched Manny more than Manny punched him, and this I, in short, the essence of pugilism. CompuBox had Floyd out-landing Manny 148-81. He landed more power punches at 81-63. It doesn’t matter what style you have, if you hit the opponent more often and with harder shots, then you’ve probably won. Hell, Floyd even outthrew Manny 435-429. Yes, Floyd out-threw and out-landed Manny, so your argument about running is invalid. Please remember, you didn’t tune into ‘the biggest street brawl of all time’; you tuned into boxing. You don’t have to brawl. You do whatever you can to hit more than you’re hit. So if you need to use some lateral movement to counter the punches of one of this century’s most aggressive fighters, then that’s what you should do.
Floyd didn’t just ‘hug’ Manny all night. This ‘hugging’ is called clinching, and whilst it’s technically against the rules, it’s a common trick in the arsenal of almost every fighter. Floyd didn’t actually clinch that much. I can think of countless fights which have been spoiled by clinches, with Wladmir Klitschko-Alexander Povetkin coming to mind as perhaps the most extreme example from recent times. This fight was not marred by clinches. Floyd smothered Manny when he had to; it’s that simple. I don’t see how the following three ideas can co-exist: ‘Floyd ran all night’, ‘Floyd hugged all night’, ‘Floyd threw and landed more punches’. If Floyd was just running and/or hugging, when was he finding the time to throw all of these punches?
I think when you say something like ‘Floyd lost because he just hugged and ran’, what you’re actually saying is, ‘I just watched my first boxing match and it’s not what I thought.’ Listen, Floyd is a defensive fighter. Perhaps his best skill is nullifying the work of his opponent. Try to find another fight where Manny has only thrown 429 over twelve rounds – you simply can’t do it. In recent fights against Chris Algieri and Brandon Rios, Pacquiao threw 669 and 790. If you wanted to become an overnight boxing fan this weekend and you just wanted to see someone’s face get smashed up, then you should have watched Ray Beltran beat up on some smaller guy on Friday night. Everyone from Jim Carey to Childish Gambino had something negative to say about May-Pac, and they all sounded stupid. If you can’t appreciate a defensive virtuoso out-boxing an offensive genius, then keep your mouth closed, keep your tweets to yourself, or you’re going to expose your own ignorance.
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