MONEY MAN CONTROLS THE PACMAN
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 03 May 2015
Floyd Mayweather, doing what he does best in his 19-year professional career, brought to a halt Manny Pacquiao's attempt to deal him his first loss at the same tie delivering a strong message that he is the undisputed welterweight champion of the world before a full house 16,507 crowd at the MGM Grand Arena here.
The 38-yer-old Money Man, running from and holding the aggressive Pacquiao all throughout the 12-round encounter, just proved too elusive, winning in all the scorecards of the three judges on the way to collecting his 48th consecutive triumph.
Judge Dave Moretti saw the fight in a lopsided 118-110 decision in favor of the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association 147-pound kingpin, while judges Glenn Feldman and Burt Clements had Mayweather the winner, too, in identical 116-112 verdicts.
Both Clements and Feldman saw Mayweather winning in eight rounds as against four for the World Boxing Organization belt-owner. Moretti was more unmerciful giving the Filipino ring hero only two rounds with, like, his two colleagues no even rounds.
Surprisingly, Mayweather outboxed the normally quick-punching Pacquiao, throwing more shots, 435 to 429 and connecting 148 for 34 percent as against Pacquiao's 81 for a poor 19 percent punching acuracy.
Mayweather, who besides keeping his WBC and WBA 147-pound crowns, dethroned Pacquiao of the WBO belt, showed the way, too in power punches, connecting 81 out of 168 thrown to only 63 connection of the Pacman despite the latter's futile attempt to land 236.
Mayweather, more known for his stonewall defense, landed 25 percent of jabs thrown as against 9 percent for Pacquiao.
The loss, his sixth as against 57 triumphs, spiked by 38 knockouts, will surely sadden his country of 100-million people to whom he dedicated this, hyped as the "Fight of the Century."
The setback, could, somehow send his future hanging in the air.
"He's (Manny Pacquiao) is a hell of a fighter," Mayweather said in a television interview afer protecting his undefeated record. "I take my hat off him. Now I see why he's one of the guys that are at the pinnacle of the sport of boxing."
"I knew he was going to push it and win some rounds," he added. "He had some moments in the fight, but I kept him on the outside, I was a smart fighter. I wasn't getting hit with a lot of shots until I sat in the pocket, that's when he would land a lot of shots."
"It was a good fight, I tought I won the fight," the four time lineal champion Pacquiao uttered following his loss. "He didn't do anything. He was always moving outside."
"I got him many times, I saw his punches," he noted. "He was moving around too much, it wasn't easy throwing punches at him. If he would've stayed in one place, I could've thrown punches."
"I was able to handle his punches, he's not strong like (my) previous opponent like (Antonio) Margarito," Pacquiao remarked. "I thought I was up in the fight, that's why I didn't attack harder in the 11th and 12th rounds.
Mayweather caught the eight-division champion by surprise leading off his domination by mixing it up right in the opening three rounds to the bell.
Pacquiao woke up though in the fourth displaying his patented quick combinations, but each round he came out with those pattern, Mayweather always negated that with his own.
Pacquiao also won the sixth, ninth and 10th rounds under the scoring of Feldman and Clements with the five-division titlist taking the rest. Moretti, likewise, gave Pacquiao the fourth, but had Mayweaher the winner the rest of the way, except the sixth.
While everyone must have taken the unanimous decision win by Mayweather, many took exception to Moretti's almost one-sided verdict.
Californian Leo Santa Cruz completed a sweep of the bantamweight, super- bantamweight and featherweight divisions with a unanimous decision win over Jose Cayetano in the 10-round supporting main event.
Already the winner of the 118-pound and 122-pound categories, the Rosemead-based Santa Cruz shutout his Tijuana, Mexico native rival, winning in all 10 rounds in the scorecards of three judges, who all saw the fight in identical 100-90 lopsided verdicts.
Former amateur standout Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine knocked Puerto Rican title pretender Gamalier Rodriguez out in the ninth round of their 12-round scrap to keep his World Boxing Orgaizaton featherweight crown.
The Ukrainian, who has a record of 395 wins as an amateur was pummeling Rodriguez at will before dropping his challenger with 10 seconds in the deciding period for his fourth win in only his five times up as a pro.
In the first televised bout of the evening, Jesse Hart of Philadelphia stopped Mike Jimenez of Chicago in the sixth round to crown himself the NABO, USBA and NABF supeer-middleweigcht kingpin.
Chris Pearson clobbered local Bo Said El Harrak all of 10-rounds in their middleweight confrontation, winning by a unanimous decision.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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