World Weekend Roundup: Mayweather Defeats Pacquiao

Well, the “Fight of the Century” finally came off and not surprisingly, welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr boxed his way to a unanimous decision over Manny Pacquiao last night at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

WBC/WBA champion Mayweather started off controlling the distance and pace of the contests, keeping southpaw WBO champion Pacquiao at bay with a combination of height advantage, movement and sharp lead right hands.

Pacquiao slipped the leash in the fourth frame, ripping off fast, concussive punches that shook Mayweather.

But “Money” regained control in the fifth and slowed things back down, using exceptional defense. Pacquiao mounted a good sixth round but Mayweather managed to dampen the outburst.

Aside from a good tenth round from Pacquiao, it was all Mayweather the rest of the way as he just wasn’t there for “Pacman” to hit on most opportunities.

Judges at ringside favored Mayweather’s accuracy over Pacquiao’s aggression, awarding Floyd a 118-110, 116-112, 116-112 unanimous decision.

Mayweather moves to 48-0 (26) and now has three of the four world titles at welter while Pacquiao falls to 57-6-2 (38), having gone 3-3 in his last six outings.

What’s next for Mayweather? According to him, he’ll have one more fight before retiring. Perhaps against Amir Khan in England, which would certainly fill a 60,000 seat outdoor stadium and bring in large TV revenue. This would be in September.

That is assuming that Khan will get past Chris Algieri, whom Amir is scheduled to meet at the end of this month.

If Mayweather wins his next bout, regardless of who it is against, he would have equaled Rocky Marciano’s record of 49-0. Does anyone believe that he would walk away from the sport without trying to better that mark…?

The undercard at MGM Grand saw the world’s most accomplished novice, WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko, 4-1 (2), put former Gamalier Rodriguez, 25-3-3 (17), to sleep in the ninth after winning every round.

WBC super bantam king Leo Santa Cruz, 30-0-1 (17), made a non-title appearance at featherweight, posting a 100-90 UD on all three scorecards against overmatched opponent Jose Cayetano, 17-4 (8).

Super middle Jesse Hart, 17-0 (14), stopped Mike Jimenez, 17-1 (11), at 2:13 of the sixth for the NABO/NABF/USBA titles.

There were fireworks on Friday night at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas as the WBO lightweight title was fought over by former WBC super feather/featherweight champion Takahiro Ao, 27-4-1 (12), and former world title challenger Raymundo Beltran, 30-7-1 (18).

Beltran stopped Ao at 1:29 of the second round but was ineligible to win the title as he failed to make weight the day before the contest.

Heavily-hyped welterweight Mikael Zewski, 26-1 (20), was upset on the undercard, losing the NABF crown to Konstantin Ponomarev, 28-0 (13), by scores of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93.