MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada, May 2
TV: HBO
By Peter Lim
Underestimating Pacquiao's hand and foot speed, Mayweather will taste the canvass courtesy of a right hook and
fall behind on the scorecards early in the fight. But Mayweather never
makes the same mistake twice and gradually figures Pacquiao out.
Deploying his masterful tuck-roll-and-counter maneuvers, Mayweather
calculatingly sneaks ahead in the middle rounds, landing precious few punches but allowing Pacquiao to connect with even fewer.
Freddie
Roach implores Pacquiao to turn up the pressure and throw punches in
bunches, which he does with a measure of success in the late rounds. The
Filipino fighter sporadically jolts Mayweather with straight lefts and
right hooks but finds himself smothered and entangled in a clinch before
he can inflict further damage.
By the end of the fight, both the media and public are split 50/50. The rounds that Pacquaio wins are decisive while Mayweather appears to have squeaked by more rounds, albeit barely. But since the 10-point must system is law of the land in the sport of
boxing, Mayweather's hand is raised at the end of the night by scores in
the 114-113 to 115-112 range.
For a strength-versus-weakness analysis of the fight, please see: houstonboxing.blogspot.com.
I predict Mayweather goes down in the 5th round with 25 sec left on the clock for a full count. Pacquiao wins by TKO.
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