The hype is over. The fight is over. All that remains are the bruises. Manny Pacquiao’s ego is dented. Floyd Mayweather is filled with ego to the eyeballs. He won the fight that will secure his legacy.
He won’t care that the modern day fight of the century won’t make the shortlist for fight of the year. No one should be surprised. It was never going to be bloody brutality.
Mayweather doesn’t fight to get knockouts. It is though they are irrelevant. He moves, covers up and throws flashy combinations, fast, accurate and sharp.
It is technically brilliant, but Mayweather is not an exciting fighter to watch. If he attacked more the knockouts would come, but he doesn’t care.
Hit and not get hit. The best in the business.
It was incumbent on Pacquiao to bring the fight. He was expected to throw about 700 punches and use angles to get inside and let the power punches go.
Though Pacquiao tried it was impossible. Mayweather reduced him to a two-bit fighter.
Mayweather set the tone in the first round by staying out of range and jabbing to the body and face. When Pacquiao was in range, Mayweather shot the right cross or hook.
Inside the first minute Pacquiao would’ve known it would be a long night.
Mayweather looked much bigger. He used his reach. Pacquiao kept getting tapped with the jab and couldn’t get inside. When he attacked, Mayweather was across the ring. In the corner, Mayweather ducked and slipped. The punches brushed his back.
Wherever Mayweather was, centre-ring, on the ropes or moving sideways he was too accurate, finding room in gaps two inches wide. Pacquiao bobbed to get inside where Mayweather tied him up.
In the fourth round, Pacquiao went to the body and head, landing a big left hook that set Mayweather back on his heels. He retreated to the ropes and covered up. Manny flurried. Nothing landed. He stepped back and reset the attack, clearly winning the round.
Mayweather spent the next two rounds on the outside, moving, ducking and sliding, peppering Pacquiao with jabs and hooks. Mayweather goaded him on the ropes. Pacquiao let his punches go but Mayweather was too slick and accurate.
When they clinched Mayweather used headlocks or his body to lean on Pacquiao’s back. Referee Kenny Bayliss warned Mayweather for holding.
In the corner after round six, his father Floyd Mayweather Snr admonished his son for fighting scared.
Through the second half of the bout Mayweather moved more than fighting. When he punched he was accurate. When he stopped moving Pacquiao connected. There was blood on Mayweather’s lips.
Pacquiao’s right eye started swelling in the eighth round.
Mayweather dominated the ninth, belting Pacquiao with hooks and jabs at long range. Pacquiao tried walking Mayweather down but he wasn’t out for a walk. He was running. Pacquiao couldn’t keep up.
At the end of the ninth, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach complained to Bayless about Mayweather using elbows on the inside. Roach tried lighting a fire under his fighter.
Pacquiao won the tenth, landing hooks to the body and head. He was desperate without showing it, too concerned by the jabs and hooks rifling past his head.
Mayweather fought the final two rounds in a canter, moving and countering as Pacquiao surged forward in futility. Mayweather stayed out of range, as he’d done all night. He countered when he had to.
His defence kept him safe. His counterpunching kept him safer.
It was pure mastery. Mayweather won a unanimous decision. He deserved it.
The controversy
Boxing is like no other sport. It is a haven of redemption for some men who failed in society. Drug addicts, murderers, armed bandits and domestic thuggery. Some men have famously learned to fight in prison.
Boxing doesn’t discriminate on character grounds.
The fight of the century received a huge amount of media. It wasn’t all just about the fight. During the build up and in the aftermath, much was written about Mayweather’s two-month prison term for belting up his ex-partner.
Some journalists accused fight fans of ignoring Mayweather’s violence. One journalist asked why no one had mentioned Mayweather’s criminal past. Another wrote that people who watched the fight filled Mayweather’s pocket with cash and condoned his domestic abuse.
Clearly, some journalists had written their stories without reading any others about the fight.
Mayweather’s shame was mentioned and analysed in every story I read. We were reminded that he’d been denied an Australian Visa because he failed the character test. You couldn’t miss his assault and incarceration.
His son’s voluntary statement to police after one of Mayweather’s savage assaults was included in several stories.
Despite what some journalists claimed, Mayweather was vilified for violence against women. It wasn’t ignored.
I admire Mayweather’s skill but don’t like watching him fight. He doesn’t have that killer instinct. His fights are predictable and unexciting. If you watch one round of a Mayweather fight you don’t need to see the rest.
He is brilliant, the best exponent of pure boxing. His dedication to boxing, his fitness and diet is extraordinary.
In that sense, he is undoubtedly a role model who demands respect. It should make him a hero.
But that respect ends in the ring.
I watched the fight with a couple of mates at a pub in Bulimba in Brisbane. The Ox was overflowing. There were people on the footpath looking in through the windows.
When Pacquiao was introduced, the crowd at the Ox cheered. When it was Mayweather’s turn, he was booed. It mirrored what happened in Vegas. It mirrored what happened around the world.
Ninety percent of people watching wanted Pacquiao to win, and win by knockout.
There is a lot of hate for Mayweather. A man who belts his ex-partner in front of his kids is easy to hate.
So I watched the fight for two reasons. I love boxing. And I wanted Mayweather to feel the fear of helplessness. I wanted him to lose his dignity.
Boxing might not have standards. It doesn’t mean I don’t.
