Mayweather turned in a vintage performance as he outboxed Manny Pacquiao in a brilliant display to win a unanimous decision in one of the biggest fights in boxing history before a sold-out and star-studded crowd of 16,507 on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Judge Dave Moretti scored the fight 118-110, and judges Glenn Feldman and Bert Clements both had it 116-112. ESPN.com also had it 116-112 for Mayweather, who remains undefeated at 48-0.
The massively hyped fight, more than five years in the making, became a global event. While it was not the drama-filled battle many had hoped for, it was an impressive performance from Mayweather, the master boxer, who never allowed the more powerful Pacquiao to deliver any truly big punches as he pulled away in the second half of the fight.
“He’s a hell of a fighter. I take my hat off to Manny Pacquiao,” Mayweather said. “Now I see why he’s one of the guys at the pinnacle.”
There was so much on the line for the fighters, as Mayweather, already a five-division champion, added Pacquiao’s 147-pound world title to the two he already owned and left no doubt as to the identity of the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
More significantly, Mayweather won the legacy fight, stamping himself as the best fighter of the era he and Pacquiao have shared and dominated. During their great runs, they both won numerous world titles and beat five common opponents, all likely Hall of Famers, in Oscar De La Hoya (already inducted), Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez and Shane Mosley.
And while the fight took years to make because of the intense squabbling between camps that do not like each other, Mayweather said it was worth the wait.
“He is a true champion at heart, and we both did our best tonight. When the books are written, it will be a great fight,” he said.
Perhaps history will not record it as a great fight, but it will go down as the richest. It generated a live gate of approximately $74 million, and the pay-per-view television audience — at about $100 per buy — is expected to shatter the pay-per-view buy record (2.48 million) and pay-per-view revenue record ($150 million) set by previous Mayweather fights. In all, organizers expect the fight to generate some $400 million, and it was so big that it brought together rival networks HBO, which has Pacquiao under contract, and Showtime, Mayweather’s broadcast home.
Mayweather, already the highest-paid athlete in the world in recent years, is expected to earn an estimated $180 million and Pacquiao around $120 million.