By Alex P. Vidal
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The statistics can’t lie. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) outshattled and outslugged the tentative Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs).
Mayweather Jr. outlanded Pacquiao 148 to 81.
The unbeaten American, now the WBO/WBC/WBA 147-lb ruler, also released more punches, 435 to 429, far cry from Pacquiao lesser-hyped fights in the past where he threw punches by the volumes and didn’t provide his opponents a room to breathe.
As the bout progressed, witnessed by a sellout crowd in the MGM Grand Arena, Pacquiao punches came like rain drops in the Mojave Desert and couldn’t knock the petal off the daffodil. As if the 118-110, 116-112, 116-112 conquest wasn’t enough, punch statistics showed the dominant world welterweight king connected 81 power punches as compared to Pacquiao 63.
Sixty eight percent of Mayweather’s 48 power punches saw their marks on Pacquiao face and body in the 12-round championship set.
Based on the work rate of both fighters, there was no way for Pacquiao to win even if the bout was stretched to 15 rounds. Mayweather played by the books as a scientific fighter. His style of backpedaling but peppering the Filipino customer with crisp jabs infuriated a lot of Pacquiao fans, but experts agreed with Mayweather’s strategy that turned out to be his key to victory.
The 38-year-old hammer-fisted resident of Las Vegas showed excellent ring generalship with his fast hands and powerful shots that connected with alacrity and dispatch.
As early in the 7th round, Team Mayweather may have smelled victory when Pacquiao could not penetrate Mayweather Jr’s solid defense in the head down to the breadbasket.
Pacquiao tried to launch a desperate attack in the last four stanzas hoping to cash in on Mayweather’s temerity to slide from one direction to another to avoid Pacquiao’s lethal blows, but couldn’t connect the haymakers that could change the picture of the bout.
From the 8th to the final bell, it became a Punch and Judy show with Mayweather controlling the fight and landing jabs that befuddled Pacquiao.
The prizefighter-cum-congressman from Sarangani Province in Mindanao thought he won the fight, but after being showed the punch statistics where he lagged behind in power punches, he offered a “shoulder injury” as an excuse.
Rey Golinggan, Pacquiao wedding godfather and spiritual adviser since the boxer was just a skinny light-flyweight curtain raiser, called the loss to Mayweather as “only one of the series of bad lucks” that have befallen the once mighty atom known as Kid Kulafu in his amateur days.
“Before the fight, I asked Pacquiao if there was a chance that we could still go back to what we used to do (praying a rosary) before his fights, he answered me that when he pray, he is now praying direct to the Lord — meaning Mother Mary has no more place in his heart,” sobbed the 73-year-old Golinggan, a businessman and owner of the gym in General Santos City where Pacquiao first revved up as a simonpure in the early 90s.
“Since Pacquiao stopped wearing the rosary and since we stopped praying for Mother Mary, he lost to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez,” he added.
Golinggan said when Pacquiao rebounded with a 12-round unanimous verdict win against Brandon Rios in Macau in 2013, “Pacquiao went home only to be hounded with a P2.5 billion tax evasion lawsuit.”
There was also reportedly a bad blood that developed between Fr. Marlon Beof, who regularly host a Catholic mass for Pacquiao, and the boxer’s new friend, born again Pastor Eli Soriano.
Pacquiao still has until 2016 to fulfill his contractual obligation with the Top Rank. The loss to Mayweather may not be his farewell bout.
